Hariana, is a native Indian cattle breed used for draft purposes in the northern parts of India. This breed originated from from Rohtak, Hisar, Jind and Gurgaon districts of Haryana.

Besides the distribution of this breed in its traditional breeding tract and other adjoining areas, these animals were also reared in the erstwhile princely States of Nabha, Patiala, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Alwar, Loharu and Bharatpur, Meerut, Bulandshahar and Aligarh districts of Western Uttar Pradesh.

Characteristics:

• They have strong, proportionate bodies and are compact and graceful.
• The body colour is generally white or light grey; the bullocks are dark grey coloured.
• The head is long and comparatively thin and is carried high.
• The forehead is flat and bony with prominence in the centre of poll.
• The face is long and narrow with black, bright eyes and black muzzle.
• The ears are small and sharp, and close to body.
• The neck is long and slender.
• The dewlap is present in this breed while the naval flap is absent.
• The males have larger shoulder hump is and short penis.
• The horns are glossy and smooth and somewhat horizontal, growing longer, curving upwards and inwards in the bullocks.
• The tail is thin, short, and tapering towards the end with a black switch reaching just below the hocks.
• The limbs are sturdy, moderately long and thin and hooves black and shaped.
• The pin bone is prominent and far apart in females but close in males.
• The females have prominent teats and the udder is well developed, capacious, extended well forward; and the veins over udder are prominent.
• Average body weight of male is 430 kgs while that of female is 310 kgs.
• The height at withers of a male is 132 – 155 cm and a female is 127 – 140 cm.
• Average body length of a male is 141.02 cm and of a female is 139.2 cm.
• Average heart girth of a male is 173.96 cm while that of a female is 169.8 cm.
• Age at first calving is 40 – 61 months and inter-calving period is 13 – 18 months with a gestation period of 290 days while lactation period averages to 272 days.
• Milk production per lactation is 1400 – 2300 Kg and average milk fat: 4.3 – 5.3%.

Hariana breed is said to have been evolved by combining several native breeds and is a dual purpose breed. It is well suited for transport as it can pull a one ton load at 2 miles per hour and can cover 20 miles a day. The females are primarily meant for breeding of oxen, but they are also milked.

This indigenous breed of cattle is alarmingly close to extinction due to the trend for cross-breeding cattle for high yield of milk and inclination towards rearing buffalos. Pedigree herds are maintained at some Government farms. There are Goshalas which are rearing the abandoned, culled cows. At present, the estimated population of this breed is around 16.5 lakhs.

Initiatives taken by HLDB to implement Hariana Pedigree Selection project have developed much interest among the farmers and they have started appreciating the efforts of HLDB for improving the indigenous breeds of cattle. The government would provide quality bulls of these breeds to farmers at highly subsidized rates.

Our Surabhivana Gaushala continues to make strides towards the national movement of conserving our ‘Desi’ breeds of cattle.