National Jersey Breeding Farm

Samtse Dzongkhag

Background

Realizing the need to improve the local cattle population, systematic crossbreeding of local cattle with exotic breeds of cattle in Bhutan started with the inception of the 1^st FYP period. Accordingly nucleus farms were established in the country. National Jersey Breeding Centre, Samtse was established during the 1^st FYP (1961-1965). The farm initially begun with just 20 acres of land and had 8 Haryana cows, 2 bulls, 8 Murrah buffaloes and 2 bulls purchased from Kolkata. It served as an integrated farm comprising swine and poultry in addition to cattle till the end of the 5^th FYP. During the 6^th FYP swine and poultry was phased out and the farm concentrated on Jersey breeding with the mandate to produce purebred jersey bulls for distribution to the Dzongkhags. The farm was under the Aus-aid technical assistance from 1975 to 1986. National Jersey Breeding Centre is the only nucleus farm in the country for maintaining purebred Jersey germplasm. The Department of Livestock imported around 30 adult Karan Fries cows at the end of June 2014 for adaptability trial and the animals are being reared in the centre.

Objectives

The main objectives of the National Jersey Breeding Centre shall be;

• To produce superior quality purebred Jersey breeding bulls and supply to the Dzongkhags for cross breeding.
• To supply semen donor bulls to National Dairy Development Centre, (NDDC) Yuispang for semen collection and processing.
• To maintain a good nucleus herd to sustain the function of a bull mother farm.
• To monitor and evaluate the performance of jersey breeding bulls in the field.
• To produce wholesome and clean milk for the local population and for revenue generation.
• To assist and support CBBPs in the dzongkhags through supply of surplus heifers and cows and to evaluate and procure quality breeding bulls from CBBPs for further distribution to the dzongkhags in collaboration with NDDC.
• To serves as a base for imparting on-farm training and practical skills to visiting farmers and trainees groups on dairy husbandry.

Land and Land Use information:

In principle the centre has 348.45 acres of land registered in the thram. However, around 224.85 acres of land cannot be used as it was affected by frequent flashfloods and has become unproductive. The centre has only around 123.60 acres of productive land and had been performing under this limited landholding scenario.

Total Land Holdings                           =          348.45 acres

Degraded, flood affected land            =          224.85 acres

Land under use                                    =          123.60 acres

Under annual fodder crops                 =          42.50 acres

Under improved pasture/others           =          81.10 acres