Gir, Sahiwal and Badri are all indigenous Indian cattle breeds, and none has been shown to make better ghee than the others. Gir, from Gujarat, and Sahiwal, from Punjab, give far more milk; Badri is a small, low-yielding hill breed from Uttarakhand. What the cows eat and how the ghee is made change the jar more than the breed name does.
Search for A2 ghee and you will find all three breeds on labels, often with a story about why one is superior. This article puts the three side by side using the breed descriptions India's dairy bodies publish, then looks at what the research says actually reaches the ghee. For the Badri breed on its own, including why it declined, see our longer piece on Badri cow ghee.
At a glance
- NDDB's breed descriptions put an average lactation at 2,110 kg of milk for Gir, 2,325 kg for Sahiwal and 632 kg for Badri; Badri gives under a third as much.
- Multiplied by fat percentage, an average Gir cow yields about 97 kg of butterfat a lactation against about 25 kg for a Badri cow, nearly four times more.
- A 2023 study of 1,000 milk samples found the A2A2 genotype in 93 per cent of Gir cows and no A1A1 cows in any of seven indigenous breeds; Badri was not tested.
- A 2025 laboratory study found the making method changed ghee's aroma compounds but not its fatty acids, in both breeds it tested.
- Feed changes the fat (pasture-fed milk carries more omega-3 and CLA, a 2019 review found) and method changes the aroma; a breed name is a clue to both, not a guarantee.
Where do Gir, Sahiwal and Badri cattle come from?
Gir comes from the Gir forest and the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Sahiwal takes its name from the Sahiwal area of Punjab in Pakistan, and in India is bred mainly in Punjab and northern Rajasthan. Badri is the hill cattle of Uttarakhand, found across the state's mountain districts from Nainital to Chamoli.
These descriptions come from the Dairy Knowledge Portal of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which draws on the breed information system of the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources. The Gir and Badri entries say so explicitly.
- Gir is described as a good milk producer among indigenous cattle, tolerant of stress and resistant to various tropical diseases. Its bullocks pull heavy loads on sandy, black or rocky soil. The breed has been exported to Brazil, the USA, Venezuela and Mexico.
- Sahiwal is called one of the best milch breeds of India and very good for specialised dairying. Australia used it to develop a crossbred called the Australian Milking Zebu, and the National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal keeps a large herd.
- Badri is a dual-purpose breed, also called "Pahadi", kept for bullock power, milk and manure. It is small, active and sure-footed, with a small, tucked-up udder, and is well adapted to hilly terrain.
How do the three breeds compare side by side?
On the published figures, Gir and Sahiwal each give more than three times as much milk per lactation as Badri. The two published fat figures, 4.6 and 4 per cent, are close. The table puts the NDDB figures next to each other; where the portal gives no figure, the table says so rather than filling the gap.
| Gir | Sahiwal | Badri | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home region | Saurashtra, Gujarat | Punjab and northern Rajasthan (origin in Pakistan's Punjab) | Hill districts of Uttarakhand |
| Kept mainly for | Milk; bullocks for heavy draught | Specialised dairying | Draught, milk and manure |
| Average milk per lactation | 2,110 kg | 2,325 kg (range 1,600–2,750) | 632 kg (range 547–657) |
| Average milk fat | 4.6 % (range 3.9–5.1) | Not given on the portal's page | 4 % (range 3.6–4.4) |
| Butterfat in an average lactation | About 97 kg (2,110 × 0.046) | Not calculable from the page | About 25 kg (632 × 0.04) |
| Management described | Semi-intensive; bred largely by communities such as Rabaris and Maldharis | Not described; large herd at NDRI Karnal, some gaushalas | Semi-intensive: stall-fed morning and night, grazed afternoon to evening |
The yield gap is the number that matters most for a buyer. Dividing 2,110 by 632 gives about 3.3, and 2,325 by 632 about 3.7. Multiply each lactation by its fat percentage and an average Gir cow produces nearly four times the butterfat of an average Badri cow in a lactation. Since every litre of ghee needs a fixed quantity of butterfat, that is a direct measure of how much harder Badri ghee is to make.
These are breed averages, not promises. The Sahiwal page notes that selected herds can do much better, and records a yield as high as 6,000 litres on organised farms. Individual cows and herds vary within each breed, as the ranges show.
Does the breed change the fat in the ghee?
Somewhat, but less than labels suggest, and nobody has measured it for these three breeds together. We found no published study comparing ghee from Gir, Sahiwal and Badri milk made by the same method. The evidence that exists is narrower and points in a more modest direction.
Genes do play a part in milk fat. A 2024 genetic study of Badri cows at a university in Uttarakhand estimated the heritability of fat percentage at about 0.39. Put simply, genetic differences explained part of the variation in fat percentage within that herd, and other factors explained the rest.
The clearest test of breed against method is a 2025 laboratory study in Food Chemistry: X. Researchers made ghee from the milk of indigenous Deoni cows and crossbred Holstein Friesian cows at an Indian research dairy, using curd-butter, cream-butter and fermented-cream methods. They found differences between the two breeds' ghee in some fatty acids: more polyunsaturated fat in the Holstein ghee, marginally more conjugated linoleic acid in the Deoni ghee. That compared an indigenous breed with a European crossbred, not two indigenous breeds with each other, and it covered one dairy.
What matters more than breed for ghee?
Two things: what the cow eats, which shapes the fat, and how the ghee is made, which shapes the aroma. Both have stronger evidence behind them than any breed-against-breed comparison, and both vary as much between producers using the same breed as between breeds.
Feed shapes the fat
A 2019 review in Foods by researchers at Teagasc in Ireland sets out what studies show about pasture feeding. Milk from grazing cows carries more omega-3 fatty acids, vaccenic acid and conjugated linoleic acid, and less omega-6 and palmitic acid, than milk from cows on non-pasture diets. The review also notes that milk composition depends on genetics, health and lactation stage, but that diet remains a key lever.
The review is about cow's milk in general, not about Indian breeds, so it shows the direction of the effect rather than its size for a Gir or Badri herd. The direction is the useful part: a Sahiwal cow on fresh grazing and a Sahiwal cow kept off pasture should not be expected to give the same fat.
Method shapes the aroma
The same 2025 study found that the making method made no statistically significant difference to the 26 fatty acids it measured, in either breed. It did change the aroma compounds. Ghee from cultured routes, curd-butter and fermented cream, had more acids, alcohols, lactones, ketones and maltol than ghee from plain cream. That held for both breeds.
For flavour, that is the strongest finding in this article: the route the milk takes to butter changes how the ghee smells and tastes, whichever cow gave the milk. We compare the two routes in detail in bilona versus cream-separated ghee.
Are Gir, Sahiwal and Badri cows all A2?
Gir and Sahiwal have been tested and are mostly A2; Badri was not included in the study we found. A 2023 study genotyped 1,000 milk samples from seven indigenous and two exotic breeds. The A2A2 genotype reached 93 per cent in Gir, the highest of any breed tested, and was also frequent in Sahiwal.
The study in Animal Biotechnology found no A1A1 cows in any of the seven indigenous breeds. Across them, the A2 allele made up 91 per cent of the total, against 31 per cent in the Jersey and Holstein Friesian samples. One of the authors was affiliated with an A2 milk company, which is worth knowing when reading it.
For ghee, the A2 question matters less than it seems. A1 and A2 are variants of beta-casein, a milk protein, while ghee is clarified butterfat. We explain how little of that protein survives clarification in A2 ghee versus regular ghee. Choosing between Gir, Sahiwal and Badri ghee on A2 grounds is choosing a fat on the strength of a protein.
So which breed's ghee should you buy?
Buy on how the cows are kept and how the ghee is made, and treat the breed as a clue to both. A breed name on its own tells you little about the fat in the jar, but it can tell you something about the farming behind it, and that is worth checking.
- Ask how the cows are fed. Pasture and concentrate-heavy rations give different fat, whatever the breed.
- Ask how the ghee is made. Curd-churned and cream-separated ghee differ in aroma even from the same milk.
- Check the region and herd are specific. A named district means more than a breed name printed over a generic origin.
- Check that supply fits the yield. At under a third of Gir's milk per lactation, Badri ghee cannot honestly be produced in unlimited quantity.
- Look for a batch-coded lab report. It will not prove breed, but it shows the producer tested what it shipped.
We make Himdhara ghee from the milk of free-grazing Badri cattle in the Uttarakhand hills, churned from curd on a wooden bilona. That is a choice about farming and method as much as breed, and the same five checks apply to us as to anyone.
The short version
Gir and Sahiwal are productive dairy breeds from Gujarat and Punjab; Badri is a small Uttarakhand hill breed that gives between a quarter and a third as much milk per lactation. We found no study comparing ghee from the three made the same way. The research that exists shows feed changes milk fat and the making method changes ghee's aroma, while A2 status hardly reaches the jar. Choose on feeding, method and a verifiable batch report, and treat the breed as a clue rather than a guarantee.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- National Dairy Development Board (n.d.). Gir. Dairy Knowledge Portal.
- National Dairy Development Board (n.d.). Sahiwal. Dairy Knowledge Portal.
- National Dairy Development Board (n.d.). Badri. Dairy Knowledge Portal.
- Kataria D., Singh G. et al. (2025). Effect of processing methods on fatty acid composition and flavour profile of clarified butter (ghee) obtained from Deoni and Holstein Friesian cow breeds. Food Chemistry: X.
- Alothman M. et al. (2019). The "Grass-Fed" Milk Story: Understanding the Impact of Pasture Feeding on the Composition and Quality of Bovine Milk. Foods.