A whopping Rs 25 lakh is what a certain Kapoor Singh of Singhwa village in Rohtak received for his trophy buffalo, which yields up to 32 litres of milk every day. Murrah Buffalos, often called Black Gold in Haryana because of their breed and good milk production, contribute 70% of the total milk production (63 lakh tonne) in Haryana.
Singh, 55, sold his ‘Gold Mine’ to an Andhra Pradesh farmer Rajiv Sarpanch for Rs 25 lakh after having bought her for Rs 2.5 lakh two years ago, thus marking the highest bid for a buffalo in the country.
Called Lakshmi, the buffalo has surely been a goddess of wealth for Singh as she was not only adjudged the best buffalo in the Muktsar cattle fair earlier this year, but has also bagged prizes worth around Rs 3 lakh in milk yield and other contests.
One of her male calves was also sold for Rs 3 lakh.
But why would anyone be willing to pay such a premium?
“The Andhra Pradesh government is hosting the best cattle contest in January 2014 and the winner will romp home with 1 kg gold! That’s Rs 28.40 lakh plus the proceeds from the milk sale.”
However, the economic benefits of this breed of buffalos is costing the state as recently a large quantity of Murrah buffalo semen went missing from a “well protected” sperm bank in Hisar.
Since the semen is used for artificial insemination and sold to other states, it was suspected that the semen has been smuggled to other states while attempts have been made in the past to smuggle it abroad.
