Description
Girolando is a very common breed in Brazil, but is relatively
recent, the first notices of the breeding dates from the early
forties.
This breed started as the search of a milking animal that had
the rusticity of the Gir, which arrived from India in ***1, and the
high production of the Holstein, which is not tolerant of the high
temperatures and presence of ticks and other parasites.
The rusticity and tolerance to tropical conditions are perfect
for Sri Lanka, being very similar to the northern part of
Brazil.
Today the majority of the milk farms in Brazil have Girolando
cattle.
In ***9 the Brazilian Ministry of agriculture in cooperation
with breeders associations established the standards to form a new
race: the Girolando – tropical milking cattle.
The breed is a double breed of Holstein and Gyr, several
degrees are accepted by the associations : ¼, ½, ¾ , 3/8 and 5/8 .
The milk production tends to be higher on the breed with more
Holstein, so the production of different animals can diverse
significantly, depending on the percentage of Holstein, even
looking at the breed as a race. On the other hand the rusticity
increases if the Gir proportion is higher.
Gir Cattle
These animals are available at
Agro Betel also as a genetic source to produce high quality
embryos.
