168 APPLICATION OF ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION IN CATTLE [Vol. XXII, Part III,
interest to note that while at Montgomery, the cow to buffalo insemination ratio
is in favour of buffaloes, at Patna it is contrarywise. At Calcutta, the number of
buffaloes inseminated is negligible. These figures, however, should not be taken
as depicting a true picture of the actual species-wise demand at the three centres.
At Calcutta, for example, the absence of buffalo insemination is mainly due to the
poor response of the purchased bulls. Two buffalo bulls were purchased from Rohtak
and transferred to Calcutta. One of them was young and the other though mature
and ready for service, possibly due to the sudden change, in the environmental
conditions, could with great difficulty be made to take notice of females even on heat.
It was used to natural service and repeated attempts failed to train him to ejaculate
in the artificial vagina. At Patna, only towards the end of the year as reported
herein buffalo bulls could be procured for use. The situation at Montgomery may
justifiably be taken as a true reflection of the popular demand. To start with,
Hissar, Sahiwal and Nili semen was available without difficulty and in sufficient
quantities to meet the local demand. Yet, only seventeen out of a total of 482
animals were inseminated with Hissar semen. The reason was each 'chak' had
Hariana bulls of their own supplied by the Civil Veterinary Department, Punjab.
The demand for Nili semen was great, as no bulls of this breed were readily available
to the villagers and there were instances when the villagers brought their buffaloes
on heat from over a distance of ten to twelve miles. The Sahiwal semen was in
general demand as the farm, where the centre was located, had a reputation of
possessing prepotent, pedigreed Sahiwals. The figures of this centre, therefore,
may be taken as representing a cross-section of the actual demand in this tract.
At Patna, only Tharparker semen was available. Tharparkers, though recommended
by the provincial livestock authorities for general use, are not popular with the
traditional gwallas in the city who show a strong fancy for cross-bred animals locally
known as the 'Taylor breed'. If a bull of this breed was available to the centre,
there is little doubt that the insemination figures would have considerably improved.
The largest number of Bos indicus females were inseminated from a bull stationed
at Patna (Bull No. 57-Breed Tharparker with 384 inseminations). The largest
number inseminated with semen from a buffalo bull was at Montgomery (Bull No.
P. A. with 385 inseminations). It will be shown elsewhere that the figures could
have been at least trebled, if sufficient number of animals were made available for
insemination. Alternately, a fast moving vehicle at the disposal of the centre would
have gone a long way in making larger number of inseminations possible.
From the economic aspects of the centres work, the figures given in Table III
are revealing. It will be seen that at Montgomery, though ten bulls were at the
disposal of the centre, the majority of the cows were inseminated from only four
bulls. These four bulls accounted for 67.9 per cent of total number of animals
served. At Patna, out of 1216 inseminations, four out of seven bulls accounted for
77.3 per cent of the total animals served. At Calcutta, three bulls out of the four
served 84.9 per cent of the cows. These figures indicate that about two bulls of
a given breed, provided they are found satisfactory for artificial insemination work,
are adequate for a centre of this type.
As for the number of inseminations per ejaculum, as already explained, the
limiting factor had been the small number of animals coming to the centre for in-
semination. Thus though 'neat' semen alone was used at Patna throughout, the