Vechur Cattle

The Vechur cattle are a smaller sized and native Indian breed of Bos indicus cattle. The breed was named after the village Vechoor in Kottayam district of the Kerala state in India. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Vechur cattle breed is the smallest cattle breed in the world. The breed is noted and valued for the larger amount of milk production compared to the amount of food it requires. Sosamma Iype, a Professor of Animal breeding and Genetics along with a team of her student saved the breed from extinction due to conservation efforts. A conservation unit was started in the year of 1989. And in 1998, a conservation trust was formed to continue the work with farmer participation. The Vechur cattle became rare when the native animals were crossbred with exotic animals. And the breed was popular in Kerala until the 1960s. It was listed on the FAO’s World Watch List of Domestic Animal Diversity in 2000, in it’s ‘Critical-Maintained Breeds List’. The breed was listed pointing to imminent extinction, as breeds are included in the list when the number of breeding cows and bulls fall to very low levels. There are about 200 cows are supposed to exist today. And most of them (nearly 100) are in the Veterinary College. Read more info about this cattle breed below.