Gir

The Gir developed in the Gir forest region of the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat, India, as an indigenous dairy zebu suited to a hot climate. It is recognised and characterised among India’s registered indigenous cattle breeds.

Exported to tropical countries, the Gir became especially significant in Brazil, where it is bred as a dairy zebu and used to create dairy crosses with taurine breeds — most notably crosses with the Holstein that combine tropical adaptation with higher milk output. Registration in Brazil is coordinated through the national zebu breeders’ organisation.

Gir cattle show the zebu hump along with a strongly domed forehead and long, folded, pendulous ears; coats are usually red to mottled red-and-white. The breed is kept primarily for milk, an unusual emphasis among the widely known zebu breeds, many of which are beef-oriented.

Its combination of dairy ability and tolerance of heat and ticks makes the Gir valuable both as a purebred tropical dairy animal and as a parent in tropical dairy crossbreeding programmes.

The Gir is adapted to hot climates, with tolerance of heat and of external parasites such as ticks, and the ability to produce milk on tropical feed resources. This adaptation underpins its role in tropical dairying and dairy crossbreeding.