Gearing up superior quality semen production: breeding soundness evaluation of bulls and beyond

India is the foremost milk producing nation of the world, and homes the largest domesticated bovine population. But the average productivity of indigenous/non-descript animals is far below than that of Taurine cattle. Crossbreeding of low producing indigenous and nondescript cattle with high producing exotic breeds like Holstein Friesian and Jersey is followed as the breeding policy of the country for the last four decades, to meet the everincreasing demand for milk and milk products. Artificial insemination (AI) with frozen semen from superior bulls is the major tool behind the success of crossbreeding, which is witnessed by the increase in crossbred cattle population from 8.8 million in 1982 to 39.73 million in 2012. Female cross bred cattle are growing at the rate of almost 10 per cent per annum; the rate of growth would have been much higher had the AI service in India been of better quality.