VIJAYAWADA: Beauty contest for cows and Mr Strong contest for bulls. Henceforth, AP will host these contests every year.
The beauty pageant for the cattle along with contest of strength for bulls and milk yielding competition for cows will be conducted at the national-level in Chilakaluripet of Guntur district by Andhra Pradesh government from January 18 to 20.
According to Minister for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry P Pulla Rao, the main reason was to rouse interest among the youth in animal husbandry. “The event is being held to mark the death anniversary of former CM and TDP founder NT Rama Rao. Hereafter, it will be a regular annual feature,” he said.
According to officials of Animal Husbandry department, about 200 cows of different indigenous breeds from across the country will feature in the milk yielding contest and beauty pageant.
In case of cattle beauty pageant, which is being called ‘Avula Andala Potilu’ in Telugu, there will be different categories based on age and gender of the bovines.
“Main objective of the programme is to identify high milk yielding cattle among the indigenous breeds. After identifying high milk yielding cattle, we will conserve their germplasm, so that, we could have 200 offsprings of the single bovine through invitro fertilisation and increase their population. G Somasekharam, director of Animal
Husbandry told Express.
Feeling bullish
With regard to contest of strength for the bulls, the officials chose not to elaborate, but it was learnt that the contest will be on the lines traditional bull contests held during Sankranti. It involves, the bulls normally used as draft animals to drag a carts with wheels which are made to drag heavy logs for a fixed distance. It is to gauge the strength of the animal, sources said.