Gyr cattle

For the bird, see Gyr Falcon.

Raghav Gir bull at Hyderabad.

Gir bull at Sagwadi farm, Bhavnagar.

The Gir is a type of cattle originating inIndia. It is an important milch cattle breed of India. The cattle cows best known for their milking prowess.

Distinctive features of Gir CowEdit

Body Size: The origin of the breed is in the Gir forest region and surrounding districts of Saurashtra region of Gujarat State. It is a moderate to large size breed. The females average 385 kg with a height of 130 cm and the males average 545 kg with a height of 135 cm. The average milk yield for the Gir is 1590 kg per lactation, with a record production of 3182 kg at 4.5% fat in India. In Brazil they average 3500 kg per lactation, with a world record production of 17.120 kg by the cow Profana de Brasília. The body colour is shining red to spotted white. Skin is soft, thin, and glossy. Occasionally animals which are predominantly white with red spots are also seen, according to Dr. J. V. Solanki, Dean, Veterinary College, Anand Agricultural University (AAU), Anand, Gujarat.

Head: The most unusual feature of Girs is their convex forehead, which acts as a cooling radiator to the brain and pituitary gland (source of growth and reproduction hormones). The animals have a big head with prominent bulging shield like forehead and a long face.

Ears: Their ears are long and pendulous, opening to the front and resembling a curled up leaf. Gir ears are very large and are an excellent fly and insect swatter.

Horns: Horns are set well back on their heads and thick at the base. They grow downwards and backwards with an upward curve.

Color: The vary in color from pure red to speckles, yellowish red to white with large red spots. Their undercoat is red.

Skin: Their skin is darkly pigmented with short glossy hair, very loose and pliable. They can twitch it anywhere on their body to dislodge insects and have a whip like tail, which is deadly on insects. They sweat just like a horse.

Eyes: A Gir’s eyes are hooded and black pigmented. They can close their eyelids so it is impossible for insects to annoy them. They have a lot of loose skin around the eye area.

Feet: Gir’s feet are black and very hard.

Sheath: The sheath is supported by a very strong panniculus muscle either side. The muscle can raise and lower the sheath at will. Sheaths are very neat and tidy.

Sebum: Is a substance secreted in the skin, which is greasy and acts as an insect repellent.

Fertility: Girs are highly fertile and calve very regularly. Their calves are born small so calving problems are unheard of.

Hump: The hump on a Gir is considered to be the largest of the Zebu breeds and is very well marbled. It is used as a pot roast.

Temperament: Girs are considered to be the most gentle of the Zebu breeds. They love being with humans. They adore being brushed and scratched on their big dew laps, around the head, and between the back legs. Their temperament is well illustrated in Brasil where the cow will come into bails to be milked by machines just like any Friesian or Jersey cow. They are very gregarious and at night form a circle very close together with their calves sleeping under their necks. Gir cattle are one of the three Zebu breeds used to develop the American Brahman. Two of the most famous foundation sires, Manso and Emperor, carried a high Gir content. This can be seen in their down swept horns, big humps, straight wide backs, and beautifully sloping, filled out hind quarters.

The Gir or Gyr is one of the principalZebu breeds originating in India. It has been used locally in the improvement of other breeds including the Red Sindhiand the Sahiwal. It was also one of the breeds used in the development of theBrahman breed in North America. InBrazil and other South American countries the Gir is used frequently because, as a Bos indicus breed, it is resistant to hot temperatures and tropical diseases. It is very known for itsmilk producing qualities and is often bred with Friesian cows to make theGirolando breed.

The Gir is distinctive in appearance, typically having a rounded and domed forehead (being the only ultra convex breed in the world), long pendulous ears and horns which spiral out and back. Gir are generally mottled with the color ranging from red through yellow to white, it is also found in black color. They originated in southwest India in the state of Gujarat and have since spread to neighboring Maharashtra andRajasthan. Actually the name is GIR & not GYR as misspelled by some of the people, GIR is a place famous for last abode of Asiatic lions, the place is situated about 45 kilo meters from the district headquarters of Junagadh, in Gujarat state of India. The breed was kept by local people known as Maldhari for their livelihood. The breed is known for its distinct appearance, height & weight and natural beauty which makes it very different from the Jersey cows etc. The breed is today on the verge of extinction from India as people of India are using more of buffalo milk then the cow's milk. (The breed is on verge on extinction due to lack to breeding programs and irrational crossbreeding with breeds more common to western nations.) Finding it economically difficult for the people to keep a gaay in their herd. Today however due to efforts of social activist Mr. Mansukhbhai Suvagiya (a farmer turned industrialist and a revolutionary visionary from small village of Junagadh District) the awareness is created among people of Gujarat about saving this real pride breed of Gujarat. Mr. Mansukhbhai Suvagiya along with his other friends have started a plan of breeding 10,00,000 high quality gir gaay in Gujarat to regain the lost grounds.^{[citation needed]}For this noble cause a trust has been formed in rajkot known as Jalkranti Trust. The trust as of now carries out two main activities of Gir Gaay Breeding and Water conservation. The efforts of this man & his team have started showing results in terms of increase in the no. of gir gaay and increase in the general awareness of People. Many of the Swaminarayan Temples have also helped in preserving this high quality breed from Gujarat, which includes Charodi Swaminarayan gurukul at Ahmedabad,Bhuwneshwari pith gondal in the state of Rajkot, Sagwadi Education & gaushala Charitable trust atBhavnagar etc. High quality gir gaay are available in the district of Junagadh, Bhavnagar, amreli, and Rajkot in the state of Gujarat.^{[citation needed]}

Cattle Wikipedia

Cattle

"Cow" redirects here. For other uses, see Cow (disambiguation).

For other uses, see Cattle (disambiguation).

Cattle
A Swiss Braunvieh cow wearing a cowbell
Conservation status
Domesticated
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Subfamily:	Bovinae
Genus:	Bos
Species:	B. taurus
Binomial name
Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758
Bovine range
Synonyms
Bos primigenius Bos indicus

Cattle—colloquially cows^{[note 1]}—are the most common type of largedomesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of thesubfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos taurus. Cattle are raised as livestock for meat (beef andveal), as dairy animals for milk and otherdairy products, and as draft animals (oxen or bullocks that pull carts, plowsand other implements). Other products include leather and dung for manure orfuel. In some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have significant religious meaning. From as few as 80 progenitors domesticated in southeast Turkey about 10,500 years ago,^[1] according to an estimate from 2011, there are 1.4 billion cattle in the world.^[2] In 2009, cattle became one of the first livestock animals to have a fully mappedgenome.^[3] Some consider cattle the oldest form of wealth, and cattle raidingconsequently one of the earliest forms of theft.

Taxonomy

See also: Bos and Bovinae

Cattle were originally identified as three separate species: Bos taurus, theEuropean or "taurine" cattle (including similar types from Africa and Asia); Bos indicus, the zebu; and the extinct Bos primigenius, the aurochs. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle.^{[citation needed]} Now, these have been reclassified as one species, Bos taurus, with three subspecies: Bos taurus primigenius, Bos taurus indicus, and Bos taurus taurus.^[4][5]

Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other closely related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between taurine cattle and zebu (such as thesanga cattle, Bos taurus africanus), but also between one or both of these and some other members of the genusBos – yaks (the dzo or yattle^[6]),banteng, and gaur. Hybrids such as thebeefalo breed can even occur between taurine cattle and either species ofbison, leading some authors to consider them part of the genus Bos, as well.^[7]The hybrid origin of some types may not be obvious – for example, genetic testing of the Dwarf Lulu breed, the only taurine-type cattle in Nepal, found them to be a mix of taurine cattle, zebu, and yak.^[8] However, cattle cannot successfully be hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as water buffalo or African buffalo.

The aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa, and much of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to Europe, and the last known individual died inMasovia, Poland, in about 1627.^[9]Breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of similar appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, creating the Heck cattle breed.

• 

  A Holstein Fresian cow, a typical member of the Bos taurus taurus sub-species
• 

  Żubroń, a wisent and cattle hybrid

Etymology

Cattle did not originate as the term for bovine animals. It was borrowed fromAnglo-Norman catel, itself from medieval Latin capitale 'principal sum of money, capital', itself derived in turn from Latin caput 'head'. Cattle originally meant movable personal property, especially livestock of any kind, as opposed to real property (the land, which also included wild or small free-roaming animals such as chickens — they were sold as part of the land).^[10]The word is a variant of chattel (a unit of personal property) and closely related tocapital in the economic sense.^[11] The term replaced earlier Old English feoh'cattle, property', which survives today asfee (cf. German: Vieh, Dutch: vee, Gothic:faihu).

The word "cow" came via Anglo-Saxoncū (plural cȳ), from Common Indo-European gʷōus (genitive gʷowés) = "a bovine animal", compare Persian gâv,Sanskrit go-, Welsh buwch.^[12] The pluralcȳ became ki or kie in Middle English, and an additional plural ending was often added, giving kine, kien, but alsokies, kuin and others. This is the origin of the now archaic English plural, "kine". The Scots language singular is coo orcou, and the plural is "kye".

In older English sources such as theKing James Version of the Bible, "cattle" refers to livestock, as opposed to "deer" which refers to wildlife. "Wild cattle" may refer to feral cattle or to undomesticated species of the genus Bos. Today, when used without any other qualifier, the modern meaning of "cattle" is usually restricted to domesticated bovines