Mandya

Mandya, also known as Bannur and Bandur, is distributed in the Mandya district and areas bordering the Mysore district of Karnataka.

The Bandur strain of the breed is known for its meaty conformation and meat quality. The State Animal Husbandry Department indicates a large movement of this breed out of the Mandya district because of an increase in irrigated cultivated area, leaving little land with natural vegetation for sheep grazing. There is need for conservation of this breed, which is perhaps the best meat breed of the country as far as conformation is concerned, although body weights, weight gains, feed conversion efficiency and carcass yield are not much higher than other breeds.  They are relatively small animals, predominantly white in colour, but in some cases the face is light brown, and this may extend to the neck. They have a compact body with a typical reversed U-shape conformation from the rear. The ears are long, leafy and drooping, the tail is short and thin and a large percentage of animals carry wattles. They have a slightly Roman nose. Both sexes are polled. The coat is extremely coarse and hairy. Average age at first lambing is 645 days, with a lambing interval of 378 days. The lambing percentage is 70 and the litter size is single.  

Breeding is pure; rams are generally selected on the basis of body weight and conformation. Dressing percentage on pre-slaughter live-weight basis for animals slaughtered at 12 months is 49. Wool production is approximately 372 gm annually. According to the 18th Livestock Census of 2007 there are 295,692 Mandya sheep in the country. (Refer to the maps below) 

Text Source: NBAGR

Photo Source: CSWRI, Avikanagar