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Frieswal cattle is one of the crossbred strains having 5/8 Holstein Friesian and 3/8 Sahiwal inheritance, develo pedby ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cattle, Meerut, in collaboration with Ministry of Defence. The projectwas started in 1987 for the evolution of a new crossbred national milch breed: Frieswal – (Holstein×Sahiwal), yielding 4,000 kg of milk with 4% butter fat in a mature lactation of 300 days. It is the only project in the country where such a huge population of animals (more than 20,000) is available with accurate production and pedigree records of each and every animal over generations, with well-established progeny testing network in 37 military farms to cover all the agro-climatic zones of the country. In this review, an attempt has been made to analyze the genesis, present status and future prospects of Frieswal cattle in India.

Fertility associated antigen (FAA) are more abundant in semen of bulls with high fertility. The objective was to investigate relationship of FAA, either membrane bound and/or in seminal plasma, with that of markers of oxidative stress, mitochondrial activity and acrosome integrity of live cells, in cryopreserved spermatozoa. Grouping of bulls was done by electrophoretic profiling of proteins from seminal plasma (SP), and sperm membrane (SM), based on presence/absence of the FAA in SP and/or SM or both. Group I had detectable FAA in both SP and SM; Group II, FAA detected only in SM; Group III, detectable FAA only in SP and Group IV, undetectable FAA in both SP and SM. At post-thaw stage, the lipid peroxide levels were significantly lower (p Lass Than 0.05) and the activity of primary free radical scavengers (superoxide dismutase and catalase) was significantly higher (p Lass Than 0.05) in Groups I and II. Correspondingly, Group I and II showed significantly higher (p Lass Than 0.05) per cent of acrosome intact live spermatozoa and sperm cells with functionally active mitochondria. Collectively, this study showed that the presence of FAA on the sperm membrane is related to greater protection against oxidative stress ensuing improved acrosome intact live-sperm cells with functional mitochondria.

An experiment was conducted to compare the effects of two times and three times daily milking frequencies on feed intake, body weight and haemato-biochemical changes in crossbred cows. Twenty-four cows of second to fourth parity were distributed into two groups on the basis of genetic makeup and parity. The cows of control group (T1) were hand milked twice a day with 12 hours interval and of the other group (T2) thrice daily with 8 hours interval. All the animals were housed under tie stall system of housing. The parameters were recorded from 7th to 104th day of lactation on individual animal. No significant difference was observed for total dry matter intake between the groups. The gain in body weight per cow was 20.00 and 8.75 kg in T1 and T2, respectively without significant difference. Body condition score change was 0.02 and (0.06 units in cows of T1 and T2, respectively. Haemoglobin, packed cell volume, albumin, calcium and T 3 values were found significantly (PB0.05) higher in T1 than in T2. It is concluded that more frequently milked cows produced more milk at the cost of their body reserves, expressed by their comparative poor body condition, and had lower values of some blood metabolites.

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