An international celebrity in his own rights, Yuvraj — a bull named after the famous cricketer — will be the star attraction at the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet 2016 (Gram) beginning here Wednesday.
Just like his namesake cricketer, who went for a record price of Rs 14 crore in an IPL auction, the bull Yuvraj was also in the news earlier when its owner Karamveer, of Kurukshetra in Haryana, turned down an offer of Rs 7 crore to sell it. Karamveer had also been offered Rs 9 crore by a South African for Yuvraj, but he has refused to part with the bull.
Yuvraj has been a cash cow for his owner, and earns him Rs 60 lakh annually via the sale of sperm and appearances at cattle shows. Currently, the dose of semen used for artificially inseminating Murrah buffaloes, 0.25ml, costs close to Rs 1,500.
Yuvraj is considered a perfect specimen of the Murrah breed, and has won 17 awards at national competitions. The bull has fathered over 1.5 lakh calves through sperm do-nation. His sperm has been in great demand ac-ross almost all the northern states. He generates 3.5 to 5ml of high-quality semen daily, which is diluted to increase the volume to 35ml.
“Every day somebody or the other comes to see him. He’s not just another bull, he’s a brand,” said his proud 47-year-old owner.
They take pictures of his eyes, his coat, his horn and his tail. The bull weighs 1,600kg, is 10 feet long and 5-foot-8-inches tall.
“He drinks 20 litres of milk a day, eats five kilogramme apples and 15 kilogramme very fine quality cattle feed. He also takes a four kilometre walk daily,” Karamveer said. It all began when Karamveer bought Yuvraj’s father, a bull he later named Yograj, from a farmer in Rohtak district for Rs 37,000 14 years ago.
Yuvraj, who has graced cattle shows across north India, will be among the cows and buffaloes from high-yielding breeds on show at Gram.
Apart from Yuvraj, there is also a wild black chicken called Kadaknath that will be attraction for the visitors. The Kadaknath is mostly found in eastern Madhya Pradesh — especially around Jhabua and Dhar. Its flesh is black in colour, thanks to a higher melanin content. Once reared mainly by tribal communities such as the Bhils, its gamey meat is highly prized as an aphrodisiac delicacy and as a restorative.
The consumption of Kadaknath, locally known as “kali masi”, helps increase red blood cells and hemoglobin. Scientific data show that the iron content in a Kadaknath chicken is nearly 10 times than in an ordinary chicken. Recently, Jhabua Krishi Vigyan Kendra had written to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) requesting it to include Kadaknath chicken in athletes’ diets to improve their performance.
