The present Cattle and Buffalo Farm of Livestock Production and Management was established during October 1937 by transferring some Hariana and Murrah buffaloes from Cattle Breeding Farm, Karnal. The basic mandate was to improve the productivity of these animals by selective breeding and to provide facility for other fields of research in the Institute. The productivity of purebreds improved slowly and these animals were also used for artificial insemination during pre-independence period by Dr. P. Bhattacharya and his team.
In 1945, Farm Animal Genetics Section (FAGS) was established and these animals were transferred to FAGS. During the 3rd Five Year Plan i.e. 1.4.1968, an All India Coordinated Research Project for “Studying Behavioural Pattern of Zebu Crossbreds” was started with 2 initial centres. These centres were IVRI, Izatnagar and HAU, Hisar and a base population of 400 Hariana cows at each centre.
Finally, the project was merged into AICRP on Cattle in 1969 with the major objective to evolve dairy cattle breed by crossing native Hariana with semen of elite temperate dairy breeds viz. Holstein Friesian, Brown Swiss and Jersey. Under the project, various crossbred grades were produced and were tested for their production and reproduction traits, growth, heat tolerance and disease resistance and multiplied upto 9 generations.
Murrah buffaloes were also maintained for research and teaching purposes since inception of Cattle and Buffalo Farm. This unit was expanded into an improvement programme on Murrah buffaloes under AICRP on Buffaloes/Network Project on Buffalo improvement. A small herd of pure Holstein Friesian animals were imported from Australia with the major objective of multiplication and improvement of these animals.
The Farm Animal Genetic Section was renamed as Livestock Production Research (Cattle and Buffalo) during 1975. In October, 1997, it was reorganized and existing set up of Livestock Production Research (Cattle and Buffalo) with Swine Production Farm and Sheep and Goat Farm were converted into Livestock Production and Management Section. Presently, scientific staff of the section is also involved in teaching of BVSc, MVSc and PhD students.