While delivering a lecture to a batch of educated dairy farmers I showed them a picture of a man, who was 8 feet tall and weighed 350 kg, and asked them if they would agree to marry their daughter or sister to such a person. The farmers’ response was a firm ‘No’ and the reason expressed was: ‘abnormal personality would lead to abnormal progeny’. Then I showed them pictures of the Murrah breed buffalo bulls ‘Raju’ and ‘Yuvraj’, constantly in news for their physical feat; both weighing more than 1400 kg, with a length of 14 feet and height of 5.8 feet. When asked if they would agree to breed their buffaloes with this bull, many quietly nodded and few said ‘yes’. The reason elaborated was that female calves born to these grand hefty bulls would be better milk producers.

It is a common myth prevalent among farmers that a large-frame bull would mean better genetics which must be an outcome of frequent but persistent coverage in the press and digital media about bulls presented in the shows who are judged based on