June, 1958] V. N. AMBLE, K. S. KRISHNAN AND J. S. SRIVASTAVA 51
for analysis. The remaining foundation cows did not complete even one lactation
on the farm before they were culled.
The herd was served by as many as 36 Sindhi bulls. Of these 13 were purchased
from outside, four were the sons of foundation cows sired by outside bulls and the
remaining 19 were farm-bred bulls. Twelve of the 36 stud bulls did not leave any
daughter with lactation records in the herd. Only 14 bulls had six or more
daughters with records, the daughters of these bulls accounting for 70 per cent of
the total farm-bred cows with records.
Besides the Sindhi bulls a number of foreign bulls belonging to Ayrshire breed
were also used on a number of cows of the herd belonging to the foundation stock or
the first farm-bred generation. A number of Sindhi bulls were also used on the cross-
bred herd when back-crossing was desired. The progeny resulting from the above
matings was excluded from the present study.
In all, 1,399 calves were born in the herd of which 674 were females, accounting
for 48.2 per cent of the births. The deviation from the expected sex ratio of 50 per
cent was not significant. Of the 602 female calves born in the farm upto 1948 only
40 per cent completed their first lactation on the farm up to April, 1952. Of the
others, about one-third died and the rest were culled, except nine which had not yet
calved even once or were in their first lactation.
2.2—FEEDING MANAGEMENT AND HEALTH
The feeding practices were more or less similar to those in the Hosur Farm. The
roughages required were partly home grown and partly purchased while the entire
requirements of concentrates, salt, lime and mineral supplements were purchased.
Fodder for groups of cattle stalled together was fed collectively. The feeding
of concentrates was done on the basis of individual animals at the rate of 1 lb. for
every 2½ lb. of milk produced over and above the maintenance ration. Different
mixtures were fed accroding to the availability of different ingredients and the re-
quirements.
As regards the weaning practices followed on the farm, the Sindhi calves were
not weaned at birth till 1932. From 1933 onwards, however, calves of all primi-
parous cows were weaned at birth. By 1938, weaning the calves at birth was a
general practice. Exceptions were, however, made in the case of calves of those
cows which had not responded to weaning in the first lactation. In all the cases,
the milk in the pail was recorded daily and their total over the lactation has been
taken as the lactation yield.
The number of times of milking was generally two per day except in the cases
of heavy milkers which were milked thrice ; but the records do not indicate which
of the animals were so treated. In the tail end of the lactations, cows were milked
only once. In calculating the lactation yield of a cow it has been the practice on
the farm to exclude the yield in the first four days after calving as colostrum.
For the control of diseases and for attending to minor ailments, the farm
maintains a verterinary dispensary.
Out of 674 female calves born during the 28 years of study 110 died within a
year of their birth. Seventy Seven male calves died out of 725. Of these, 13
female calves and 9 male calves died within a week from birth. Thirty