Beetal
Feb 21, 2013
The Beetal is native to the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Ferozepur in Punjab.. Amongst native breeds, the Beetal is one of the heaviest dairy type goat breeds, well known for milk production and has largely been used in cross-breeding and other goat improvement programmes.
Beetal is second to the Jamnapari in size but is considered superior to it as it is more prolific and adapts more easily to different agro-ecological conditions and stall feeding. They are predominantly black, but black, red, tan or heavily spotted on white also occur; males usually posses a beard. They have long pendulous drooping betel leaf shaped pinna1 and horizontal with backward and outward twisting horns. Age at first kidding is about 600 days and kidding intervals thereafter are of about 368 days. Twins (53%) or single (40%) births are common, though a few cases of triplets (6.5%) and quadruplets (0.5%) have also been documented.
The average milk yield per lactation is 288 kg2. In addition to being considered a good dairy breed, the Beetal is also known for its good quality meat and skin. The 18th Livestock Census 2007, reports that there are 304,223 Beetal goats distributed across the states of Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Assam and Himachal Pradesh. (Refer to maps below)
.
| Adult Male | Adult Female | |
|---|---|---|
| Average Body weight (kg) | 56 to 62 | 34 to 35 |
| Average Body length (cm) | 84 to 87 | 69 to 71 |
| Average Height at withers (cm) | 90 to 94 | 77 |
| Average Chest girth (cm) | 86 | 73 |
References:
- Pinna is the ear or, more precisely, the part of the ear that projects like a little wing from the head. In Latin, pinna means wing.
- Tantia, M.S., Vij, P.K., Sahana, G., Jain, A., and Prasad, S.K. 2001. Beetal goats in their native tract, AGRI. 31, 65-74
