Meetei San

What do Meetei San cattle look like?

Meetei San are medium-sized cattle with a strong build. They are described as hardy and able to live through difficult conditions on little feed. The cows give only a modest amount of milk, roughly two to three litres a day in everyday accounts, with a range of 2.0 to 4.5 kg quoted elsewhere. Milk has long been part of local diets. Calving begins at about 34 months of age, and cows usually calve every year. Bulls were prized for ploughing and other farm work, and draught is the breed's main role.

Where does the Meetei San come from?

Meetei San belong to Manipur in north-east India and are found nowhere else. The name joins two words: Meetei, for the indigenous people of the state, and San, meaning cow, so people across Manipur know the animals as Meetei San. They were used for farm work from ancient times. Mechanised farming, brought in during the Green Revolution, cut that demand sharply and the population fell with it. In 2022 the Central Agricultural University at Imphal began working for official recognition of the breed, and a final report went to the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources at Karnal.

What the Meetei San is known for

These cattle are strong and well suited to local conditions. They cope with limited feed and simple management, and they have a semi-wild nature. They show some tolerance of common diseases such as foot and mouth disease, haemorrhagic septicaemia and black quarter. The breed is easy to rear, but low milk yield and falling numbers are its weak points.

How the Meetei San is bred and kept

Meetei San are kept on a semi-intensive system: the animals graze in the open and are also stall-fed, sometimes in closed cowsheds. Studies give an average age at sexual maturity of about 26 months, an oestrous cycle of some 21.5 days, and oestrus, the period when a cow will stand for the bull, lasting about 18 hours. First fertile service comes at around 27 months and first calving at about 37 months, with gestation averaging 280 days. Between calvings there are about 555 days, and more than two services are usually needed for a pregnancy, which points to moderate breeding efficiency.

What the Meetei San is kept for

The breed is a dual-purpose animal, with draught work first. Bulls pulled ploughs and did other farm jobs, and were once in demand as far away as the Golaghat region of Assam. Milk comes second and yields are low: 1.5 to 3 litres a day on average in some accounts, and a daily average of 2.86 kg in a studied herd, with 2.0 to 4.5 kg quoted as the usual range. A lactation of about 407 days gives roughly 363 kg. Some animals go for meat.

The land and climate of the Meetei San

Meetei San live only in Manipur, mostly in districts that have plains and grazing land. They are reared in open grazing areas and in closed cowsheds, on a mix of grazing and stall feeding. The cattle are described as strong and well adapted to local conditions, able to survive difficult circumstances and limited feed under simple management. Poor feeding, shrinking grazing land and environmental stress are among the pressures on them.

Who keeps the Meetei San

The Meetei are the indigenous people of Manipur, and the breed takes its name from them; Manipuri communities in the state rear these cattle. For many families the animals are part of the household economy and of local farming, supplying draught power and a little milk. Even so, the breed is not used to the full, and fewer farmers keep it now that machines have taken over much of the fieldwork.

Custom and folk tradition

Ploughing and other farm work have been the breed's traditional role since ancient times, and the local way of keeping the animals grew around that work. Cattle graze in the open and are also stall-fed, a semi-intensive pattern that mixes free grazing with sheds, and the breed has a semi-wild nature. When mechanised farming arrived during the Green Revolution the need for oxen fell, fewer farmers kept the cattle, and more of them went for slaughter.

Keeping Meetei San cattle

Keeping Meetei San is reckoned easy. The animals graze in the open and are stall-fed as well, and they manage on limited feed and simple care. Better quality fodder and stress-free housing are said to raise milk yield, while poor feed, scarce grazing and weak management have been linked to slow breeding. They tolerate several common cattle diseases to some degree.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

Numbers have fallen steeply. Census figures show about 3.49 lakh head in 2003, at the 17th census, and about 2.06 lakh in 2019, at the 20th; a lakh is a hundred thousand. In 2019 the whole cattle population of Manipur was some 2.63 lakh, of which 2.19 lakh were indigenous and 0.44 lakh crossbred. Because the Government of India does not recognise the breed, it is listed as nondescript in the state's five-yearly censuses and shut out of several support schemes. The Central Agricultural University at Imphal has sought registration, and a three-year study under an ICAR project on livestock genetic resources ran in 2021-2022.

Questions people ask about Meetei San

Good reading and sources

• Meetei San on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data