Monday, 04 November 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The 240 Merino sheep imported from Australia in 2019 to enable their use for enhancing the livelihood of locals have grown in population to more than 3,000. In order to bring about an improvement in the living standards of shepherds in the State, 240 Merino sheep including 41 rams and 199 ewes were imported from Australia in December 2019 with assistance from the National Livestock Mission. These sheep were imported specifically for the fine and high quality wool they produce. They were placed in the government sheep breeding farm at Kopardhar in Tehri district.
According to the Uttarakhand Sheep and Wool Development Board, a structured breeding programme was conducted under which two types of breeding are being undertaken- pure line breeding and cross line breeding. The pure line breeding programme was first started at the breeding farm in Kopardhar and the F1 females born here were bred with 34 males at the government sheep breeding farm at Makku in Rudraprayag district, 40 males at Bangali in Chamoli district and 25 males at Shamaliti in Bageshwar district. Officials informed that following the four breeding seasons so far, the number of Merino sheep has increased to 3,493. These include 437 pure bred and 3,056 cross bred Merino sheep.
The upgraded Merino cross/pure bred are being provided through 20 per cent beneficiary contribution to the State’s sheep rearers while the cross bred sheep are being provided under State sector SCP/TSP to various government sheep breeding farms. Apart from this, a breed improvement programme is also being undertaken under which 151 cross bred Merino rams have been distributed under the State sector scheme, 20 cross bred have been provided directly to shepherds, 206 rams including 45 pure and 161 cross have been distributed on subsidy, 30 cross bred have been provided under the ram replacement scheme while 484 crossbred rams have been distributed to Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
A total of 899 F1 generation pure/cross upgraded sheep have been distributed so far, the officials said. The 424 rams and 407 ewes of the fourth breeding season are available for distribution to progressive shepherds of the State, the officials added.
