The Third Chapter in Dr. Mukund Naware’s Three-Part Blog Series
Dive into the third installment of Dr. Mukund Naware’s time-spanning blog series: A Story from today (एक कहानी आजकल की), a tale of times when India has transitioned from a milk products importing nation of 1970s to not only self sufficient but the largest milk producing country in the world.
Conversations, shared stories, rituals, and artifacts define the culture of a society. What a contrast there is between the drawing-room conversations that took place in the 1970s and those of today. These stories highlight a major change in how people talk about milk. In the past, the focus was on how and where to get milk. Now, we discuss its quality instead.
A similar shift is slowly happening in rural areas. Dairy farms with more animals are starting to appear. People now talk about A1 and A2 milk, and the benefits of focusing on desi (local) cow breeds. They also question why so little attention was given to improving indigenous cow breeds, unlike what Brazil has done.
Many people do not fully understand the role that cross-breeding played in boosting milk production during the early years of Operation Flood. Over time, the private sector’s role in the dairy industry has grown. In a welcome change, even private dairy plants are now buying milk through systems similar to those of village cooperatives.
Following the Stories of “A Story From the Day Before Yesterday” (एक कहानी परसों की) and this “A Story from Yesterday” (एक कहानी कल की), one more intriguing and reflective sequel awaits: “A Story of Today” (एक कहानी आजकल की), unfolding amid the vibrant pulse of mid-2025.
These blogs first appeared in the Marathi magazine Maitri. Dr. Naware kindly shared them with me; I used Grok AI to translate into English. I am sharing this blog after Dr Naware’s thoughtful revisions.
Those interested to read the original Marathi version of this blog in Maitri may please click on the link given in this button.
The year 2025 is now underway, and this is a story from the month of September.
A young man had come to the house as a guest for two days. His name was Ajay. Since he had come after many years, conversations were flowing on many topics, and then, knowing that I was involved in the dairy business, he finally brought up the subject of milk with me.
“Uncle, is buffalo milk better or cow milk?” He asked a very basic question.
This question bothering a young man in America in the current year only strengthened my notion of how much ideological confusion there must be.
“Hey, both milks are good, but why are you asking this question..?” I said. “In our India, the tradition of buffalo rearing is thousands of years old, and the world’s finest buffalo breeds are in India. Their share in the country’s milk production is half, and even as overall production increases, that share remains steady—this I’ve personally witnessed for sixty years. This means people prefer this milk. And the increase in cow milk production is a recent development, and people like that too.” I said.
From my experience, people here don’t know the facts about total milk production or how much comes from buffaloes. How could Ajay be an exception.. I told him that in India, despite many cow breeds, the thinking was first about getting bulls for farming, and then about milk. In comparison, when developing buffalo breeds in the riverine regions of India, our ancestors considered both needs: rede (water buffaloes) for rice farming on one hand, and milk on the other. And the fundamental difference is that no devotional sentiment was attached to buffaloes, which is why this picture emerges. As a result, even today, the buffalo is a valuable animal in milk production, but beyond that, its contribution to meat production and exports is tremendous.
“But by being biased, we prioritize cows, and buffaloes aren’t even counted in our considerations.. As a society, we’ve taken them for granted, that’s what I feel,” I said.
“But Uncle, there are cows that give good milk too, right.. Gir, Tharparkar..” Ajay said.
Hearing the name Tharparkar from him surprised me.
“Where did you learn the name Tharparkar?” I asked.
“I have a friend whose family runs a dairy.. When I went to India a few months ago, I saw Tharparkar cows at her place.” Ajay said.
I was surprised. Because Tharparkar cows are considered for dual purposes: bulls for farming and milk production. If you look at it that way, India has more than thirty prominent cow breeds. But when viewed solely from the milk production angle, only a few like Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi are counted. Of these, the regions with Sahiwal and Red Sindhi breeds went to Pakistan after partition. So, it’s not wrong that Gir and then Tharparkar are known for milk here. But anyway.
“How are the Tharparkar cows there?” The question slipped out of my mouth. “Where is the dairy?” I asked.
“It’s near Indapur, on the main road..” Ajay said.
Hearing this surprised me even more because I knew that crossbred cows were more common in that area. Not just that, I knew of livestock supervisors who would strap liquid nitrogen containers to motorcycles and go door-to-door for artificial insemination. They used semen from Jersey and Holstein bulls. But that was twenty to twenty-five years ago.
The thought crossed my mind: why would the situation there have changed so much now?
“Were there only Tharparkar cows there?” I asked curiously.
“No, Uncle. There were three Tharparkar cows. The rest were eighteen cows and one buffalo.” He said.
Now, a light bulb went off in my head. There were buffaloes because of the demand for buffalo milk—that made sense. But why local cows instead of high-yielding crossbreds?
“Where is that milk supplied?” I asked.
On this, Ajay named a famous dairy. This suggested there must be a contract between that famous dairy and the farm near Indapur for specific milk supply. And it became clear from Ajay’s next question.
“Uncle, they were talking about organic milk. What do you say about that?” Ajay asked.
“Hey, organic milk in India isn’t as simple as it seems. First, organic farming must be done—no chemical fertilizers, no pesticides, etc. The fodder grown there must be fed to the animals. Moreover, whatever feed, concentrate, hay, or silage you give must come from organic farming. The key is, who will guarantee that.. Ordinary farmers have to buy many things from outside. Plus, many protocols have to be followed.” I said.
Now Ajay understood the complexity of the topic. Then he changed the subject.
“Uncle, I learned that milk was ‘A2’ type. Isn’t that better?” He asked.
One could say this was the crux of all the questions so far. Because “A2 milk” is a thing from the last fifteen to twenty years, and before that, we didn’t know about it. In the new millennium, DNA testing became more widespread, and bit by bit, new things came to light. Among them, when comparing the DNA of Indian native cows (Bos indicus) and foreign cows (Bos taurus), this difference was found. Indian native cows have the A2A2 gene, so their milk produces A2 beta-casein protein, which digests differently compared to A1 beta-casein in foreign cows’ milk. It was found that consuming A1-type milk might be linked to heart disease. From then on, claims arose that A2 protein is more beneficial. Once this became known here, aggressive promotion started on how superior native cows are. Not stopping there, it was spread that consuming milk from foreign breeds causes diseases in people. However, this hasn’t been scientifically proven anywhere in the world yet—deliberately ignoring that, business companies started profiting heavily by claiming “A2” milk is better. I explained this reality to Ajay, and the discussion ended.
I remember that when the above difference between native and foreign cows was discovered, those insisting on swadeshi got a golden opportunity, and on one hand, glorification of native cows began, while on the other, foreign and crossbred cows were belittled. Strong articles on this started circulating on social media, and reading them repeatedly made people believe they were true.
Four or five years ago, my close niece once called and asked a bizarre question. She knew I was in Uruli Kanchan, and that crossbred cow breeding started from there.
“Hey, you used to say Holstein or something..” she said, “She says it’s not a cow but a different animal.. Is this true?” She asked.
Hearing this, I was floored.
“Hey, if it were so, how could crossbreeding happen….” I said. “The fact that all cow breeds worldwide can interbreed means they share the same lineage. Buffaloes and cows are different lineages, so they can’t hybridize. Goats and sheep can’t either.” I said.
Then she asked the usual question: “Between native and foreign cows’ milk, which is better?” I replied that both milks are good.
Then she asked the inevitable question about native cows.
“Hey, tell me, in Brazil, they took our native Gir cows and milk production there has increased a lot, they say. So why do we chase after those Holstein and Jersey cows instead of our native Gir cows..?” She asked.
This question might seem logical to many. But how and why Gir cows entered Brazil is a different story, and there’s no doubt that the experiment was completely successful.
Originally, when Gir and Nellore breeds were imported from India to that country, Gir was for milk and Nellore for meat—two separate purposes. These breeds were imported because they could withstand hot climates and resist parasites like ticks.
At the time when Veer Savarkar was saying cows are useful animals here, and even after, decades have passed since these breeds were imported to Brazil, and through selective, systematic breeding, they’ve developed these breeds there.
The main point is that by crossing this Gir breed from here with their local Holstein, they’ve created a new breed called “Gyrlando,” and millions of such cows have been produced so far.
This means they’ve skillfully used the Gir breed to fully leverage the qualities of the original Holstein. It’s not just the Gir influence as we might think.
I explained this to my niece, and our discussion ended.
If we look at the current situation in Brazil, the Gyrlando breed cows give an average of 3600 liters of milk over ten months combined, and some give thirty to forty liters daily.
Just the other day, in August 2025, a Gyrlando cow named “Eva Everos” there set a world record by giving 343 liters over three consecutive days, including 142 liters on one day!! There’s no doubt that the qualities in her milk come from both Holstein and Gir breeds.
Another striking thing about Brazil is that beef production there is enormous, and along with other breeds, the Nellore has a share, as does the Gyrlando. The reason is that even if animals are raised for milk, after some time, due to age or other reasons, when they’re culled from the herd, they’re sold for meat based on the situation, giving farmers double benefits—and nothing wrong is seen in that. Farmers worldwide do this. Even if they maintain herds for milk, they get 30-40% annual income from animal sales. This is a crucial point that must be noted. Overall, when importing Gir cows from here, Brazil’s approach was scientific, and it still is. In contrast, here we give native cows the status of “Rajmata-Gomata,” and this is the story in 2025.
If we think holistically, selection in breeding is inevitable—it’s a fact. We followed it for buffaloes, so excellent buffalo breeds developed here. Even today, buffaloes can be culled easily. But sidelining this principle for cows led to mediocrity, and eventually, low-yielding cows accumulated, collapsing farmers’ economics.
As a solution, the need arose to infuse good traits into native cows, and such efforts began before independence at the Imperial Dairy Research Institute in Bangalore. Even after independence, crossbreeding in cows continued with the Indo-Danish project in Bangalore. In Kerala, 60 years ago, the Indo-Swiss project was established, and by crossing local cows with Brown Swiss, they produced lakhs of the new breed ‘Sunandini.’ In Maharashtra, Manibhai Desai laid the foundation 55 years ago—what revolution came from that crossbreeding, we’ve seen, and more importantly, our farmers have experienced it.
In a 1984 survey, for the first time, the benefits of crossbred cows were highlighted: these cows have higher efficiency in converting feed to milk, greatly impacting milk production and rural development. Also, conception rates are higher, they lactate longer, and their dry period is shorter. It’s no surprise that due to these economic reasons, farmers across the country started preferring crossbreds.
If we take recent data, in 2024, India had a total of 307.4 million bovines. Of these, 109.8 million (33%) were buffaloes, cows numbered 193.4 million, and crossbreds were 50-60 million. However, in milk production, buffaloes contributed 49%, crossbreds 32%, and native cows 20%. This clearly shows crossbreds are dominating milk output. In simple terms, native cows average 3.73 liters daily, while crossbreds give 7.8 liters. According to National Dairy Development Board data, considering buffaloes and cows together, India’s average annual milk per lactating animal is 2080 liters, compared to 8-10 thousand liters in the US and Israel. We’ve set a target of 5200 liters by 2047, and to achieve it, artificial insemination coverage must triple using proven sires.
The important thing is that farmers here understand the value of crossbreds and have become wiser. So, no need to tell them about native or half-breed cows giving so much from dung or urine annually. Governments and agricultural universities should certainly undertake research and development to preserve native breeds. But ordinary farmers shouldn’t be burdened for it.
One last thing worth mentioning: By enacting cow slaughter bans, the government has imposed restrictions on farmers’ freedom to sell animals. This causes many difficulties at the local level, with suspicion on animal sales/purchases leading to harassment. In reality, farmers should have the right to decide what to rear, keep, or sell—since they bear the maintenance costs and losses, others have no stake. Yet, people don’t change their stance. Thus, how science-based and fact-grounded our policies remain in the future will determine dairy development ahead. That’s all we can say today. Year 2025.
