The ‘Nellore breed’ sheep, considered a pride of Andhra Pradesh, made heads turn at the ‘Breeding Ram show’ organised at Srikalahasti near here on Saturday.
The three natural strains of Nellore sheep viz. Jodipi, Brown and Palla, and the recent ‘Macherla brown strain’ that evolved in Macherla area of Guntur district to promote tan coloured-sheep, are considered to fetch the best price. Similar is the strain developed in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts, where the trend indicates a growing interest among cattle rearers to maintain quality breeding stock.
The expo was organised by the Department of Animal Husbandry in coordination with District Sheep Growers’ Cooperative Union to bring awareness among sheep rearers on the need to maintain breeding rams from outbred flocks and also to encourage genetically-superior ram varieties.
Farmers, with their rams in tow, reached the venue, got their animals registered and took the independent stalls provided for each of the varieties.
The owners shared their experiences with others on the care taken by them to nurture the rams.
Prizes were given away to the ‘winner rams’, where weight, genetic character and total circumference were the deciding factors. The first prize-winning ram weighed 60 kg.
“Our intention is to promote competitive spirit and encourage shepherds to go for higher varieties,” said Assistant Director N.V. Sreekanth Babu. Joint Director S. Venkat Rao and sheep growers union district chairman Prakash Yadav were among the participants.
