Bovine matters: NARC disproves claims of Swati cattle’s high milk yield

Cattle in Swat are not special - they do not produce more milk than normal cattle, as purported by rumours.

Some self-proclaimed experts from Swat had propagated that Achai cattle and Azakehli buffaloes produce six times more concentrated milk than normal buffalo or cattle. They had said that these ‘special breeds’ could go extinct during the prolonged war against terrorism.

The National Agricultural Research Centre studied 27 cattle (10 Achai cattle and 17 Azakheli buffaloes) over the past two years.

The study showed nothing new about the two breeds, and confirmed that the two are low milk producers without any special feature in their milk.

Achai cattle were shown to give milk fat at 4 per cent, with total solids at 12-13 per cent, which is quite similar to cow milk and inferior to the buffalo milk in fat percentage.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2011.