The Gir cow is a famous Indian-born dairy cattle breed. Gir's cattle native tract is Gir hills and forests of Kathiawar. This includes Gujarat districts of Amreli, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, and Rajkot. The name of the breed comes from the forest of Gir.
Outside India, gir cattle is also very popular. This breed was imported by the United States, Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil. And successfully they're being bred there. The breed was also one of North America's cattle breeds used to grow the Brahman cattle.
Description of Gir Cow:
The Gir cattle is an important Indian dairy cattle breed. They are very hardy and well-known for their tolerance to conditions of stress and resistance to various tropical diseases.
Gir bulls are used on all kinds of soil to pull heavy loads. By general, they are very gentle and polite, and love to be with people. The Gir cattle are very gregarious and form a very close circle at night with their calves sleeping under their heads. In India, it is a very popular breed of dairy cattle.
The average Gir Cow Milk production is 6-10 liters/day. Within India, the cows are also doing very well. They produce an average of 3,500 kg of milk per lactation in Brazil.
Gir cattle's average lifespan is around 12-15 years. And during their lifetime, a cow develops 10-12 calves.
Physical Characteristic of Gir Cattle:
On average, weight of Gir Bulls and Cow is approx 550-650 kg 400-475 kg respectively. The height of bull is 1.35m and gir cow height is 1.30m on average.
The color of their body is red to spotted white. Although, with large red spots, their body color may vary from pure red to yellowish red to white. Forehead of Gir Cow is like a bony shield, prominent, convex and broad.
Ears are long, pendulous and folded like a leaf on the tip with a knot. The horns are bent and turn back. The tail of the Cow is very long.
They've a prominent Hip Bone and high Hump that differs from other Cow breed. Do you know that the HUMP in GIR Cow has a specific vein called "Surya Ketu Nadi" that is missing in Non Gir cow and Hybrid cow.
Surya Ketu Nadi (Vein) produces gold salts in its blood when dealing with solar rays. Such salts are in the milk of the cow and the other body fluids of the cow.
Because of the milk, butter and ghee of the Gir cow have a natural golden colour. In Ayurveda, Gir cow's milk, Ghee, Curd, Urine and Dung together is known as ‘Panchgavya’.
This is also very useful to fight and cure many human and animal diseases. From Surya Ketu Nadi, we can find many important propeties:
MILK:Vitamins, Proteins, Minerals, Amino acids, Phosphorous, Glucose, cerebrosides, strontyne, Carotene with golden abstracts that are very helpful for our body.
DUNG: Nitrogen(N7), Potassium ,Copper ,Molybdenum, Borex, Cobalt Sulphate, Phosphorus, Irons, Manganese, Boron, Sodium. This properties of cow dung acts as a natural fertilizer and used as raw manure.
URINE: Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Fluoride, Urea, Phosphorus, Ammonia. Regular consumption of cow urine can destroy the Cancer virus. It's urine helps to purify body and keep mind calm, which makes body healthy. It is also helpful to prevent diseases.
Gir and Indian Desi Cow:
In our state, there are many cattle breeds namely Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Kankrej and Thar Parkar. This cow fall in dairy (exclusive for milk), dual (milk-and-work-keeping) category and work animals according to their quality. Gir Cow is considered as the TOP of all other Desi Cow in India.
Bhadawari, Desan, Gujarati, Kathiawari, Sorthi and Surati are the other name of Gir Cow. Place of origin of Gir cow was in Gir forest in south Kathiawar, Gujarat. The production of milk is between 1200-1800 kgs per lactation. This cattle breed is highly resistance to disease.
Gir and Hybrid Cow Comparison
There are many differences between the Indian Gir and Hybrid cows. Indian cow breeds like Gir, Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Kankrej produces A2 milk which is rich in A2 beta casein protein wheras, Hybrid cows like Jersy, Holstein Friesian, Ayrshire and Guernsey produces milk which has both A1 and A2 beta casein protein.
Since A2 milk has many advantages over A1 milk, A2 milk producing cow breed is rated as the BOSS of all cow breeds. Gir and Hybrid Cow Comparison
| Gir Cow | Hybrid Cow |
|---|---|
| Neck of Gir cow is longer and not too thick with too many skin fold. | Neck of Hybrid cow doesn't have any folds and is comparatively short in size. |
| Centro comercial Moctezuma | Francisco Chang |
| It has huge Hump at back | Hump is missing |
| A2 milk produced by these Cow is rich in A2 beta casein protein and good for health. | Since, hybrid cows produces mixture of A1 and A2 beta casein protein, its milk has BCM 7 element which causes lots many diseases like SDS, heart diseases, cancer etc |
| They are healthy and are less prone to disease. | Hybrid Cow more vulnerable to diseases. |
| These cows can adapt any environmental conditions. | These cow requires heater in cold season and cooler in summer season. |
| In its total lifespan, Gir cattle can give birth to more than 10-12 calf. | Hybrid Cow can give birth to maximum 4 calf. |
| This Cow has colostrum that's like “human Mother’s milk” | Milk Making Machine |
| On average, this cow produces 6-10 L milk per day | On average, this cow produces 25-30 L milk per day. |
| Fodder consumed by Gir cows is high and so maintenance is high. | On other hand, fodder consumed by hybrid cow is less and has low maintenance cost |
| Milk produced is highly nutritive. | Milk produced has low nutritional value |
Having a Gir Cow is not enough. This cow needs a proper environment and a systematic infrastructure to produce best A2 Cow Ghee. We will bring these details into our upcoming blog.