IVF COW CALF: DO YOU KNOW IT IS THE FIRST IN INDIA?
How India's first test tube cow calf is doing now?
This is about India’s first IVF cow calf. How is it doing and what is the interesting story about its birth. Read on.
(India Input Team)
The name is Vijay. Age is 4 years. Place of residence is Rachana Cow farm at village Loni Deokar, about 120 km from Pune on Solapur Highway. And it is a happy playful male calf, enjoying life at the farm.
But what is so special about this Vijay? Well, Vijay is India’s first test tube calf who came into existence as an embryo of Gir breed in a test tube, at an outdoor mobile laboratory by JK trust. The calf was delivered by a desi khillari cow on September 2017. Why the name Vijay? 39 years old Majid, from the Pathan family that owns the cow farm, tells ‘India Input’ the reason,- Well the new advanced technology was made possible by visionary industrialist Vijaypat Singhania’s JK trust. And it also symbolised our collective victory that is going to facilitate a new dawn in India’s dairy industry.
India’s first IVF cow calf
The Pathan family praises the endeavour by the JK trust and it’s former CEO Dr. Shyam Zawar. The Rachana farm today has a total 3 male and 2 female calves through test tube or IVF In Vitro fertilisation technology by the JK Trust. The Pathans also tried the embryo transfer or In Vivo fertilisation technique with the assistance by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and donated the male calves back to them.
Fulfilling grandmother’s wish
Though Majid Pathan graduated in Civil Engineering but knows all about cow farming as much as a common veterinary doctor does and probably even more. He spent own money, travelled to Brazil in 2018 to recieve updated training in the field of cow farming. Strange for a Civil engineer, isn’t it? This passion for tending to Cows and taking their care is not without a reason. It is the family passion. He recalls the oft repeated lines by his grandmother Bismillah Bi, -‘ In front of every household in India, there should be atleast one cow’
Majid’s father Rajjak Khan Pathan followed the words as an order. He inspires and guides Majid even today. The family’s farm proudly hosts 275 cows now. Majid Khan and his wife have successfully passed down the passion to the next generation. Their 7 year old son Saad loves to play and spend time with cows and can narrate the names of minimum 160 cows in the heard at the farm. If you care to listen attentively, Saad can give the details such as the relationships shared by any two cows.
Serving cows is serving the nation !
In any village, you may find people complaining about the rising costs of cattle fodder, how it is increasingly difficult to feed the cattle and how keeping the cattle is a loss making preposition. But, Pathans won’t hear anything like that. Majid Khan Pathan puts you counter questions, – Can you manage a balance sheet in every relationship? Har baat ka hisaab nahin ho sakta. How would you tackle the grand old man of the family if he grows too old to do anything? Do they deserve to be abandoned ? Those who complain about problems in cow farming do not find it hard to spend on personal luxuries like buying an android smarphone for rupees twenty five or fifty thousands, while they can manage with a much cheaper handset. The expenditure on Cows is far more productive. Ghar ke bujurg ko ghar ke bahar fenk denge kya? Gaay bachegi to desh bachega, duniya bachegi. Yeh raashtraseva hai.If you can save cows, you save the nation and the world. You serve the nation.
(images: Rachana farm)
