Indian Journal of Animal Research

Deoni is an important medium heavy dual purpose cattle breed found mainly in Latur district and also distributed in small numbers in the neighboring districts viz. Parbhani, Nanded and Osmanabad of Maharashtra. Deoni cattle have three strains on the basis of coat colour variation viz. Wanner a (clear white with black colour at the sides of the face), Shevera (white body with irregular black spots) and Balankya (clear white with black spots on the lower side of the body). The information on 1682 Deoni cattle belonging to 579 owners from 48 villages of 5 talukas of Latur district of Maharashtra was collected randomly for studying morphometric characteristics as well as production and reproduction traits of three strains. The proportion of Wannera, Shevera and Balankya strains was 49.00%, 46.29% and 4.71%, respectively. In adult cattle, the Wannera strain had more chest girth (163 cm), body length (125 cm) and height at wither (126 cm) indicating heavier build-up than other two strains. Balankya strain of Deoni cattle had longer face length (50 cm), horn length (22 cm) and ear length (27 cm) than other two strains of Deoni. Balankya strain yielded more milk per lactation (973.63±55.18 kg) as compared to Wannera (830.80±40.38 kg) and Shevera (848.44±41.57 kg) strains and also had more lactation length (258.04±1 6.28 days). Balankya strain, also had higher fat % (4.08±0.60) and SNF % (8.45±0.19) than other two strains of Deoni cattle. The results revealed that Balankya strain of Deoni cattle had higher milk yield, lactation length and fat percent than Wannera and Shevera strains, but had slightly delayed age at first mating and age at first calving.