With the help of eight cows found by a student search team and a small fund sanctioned by the Kerala Agriculture University, Sosamma and her colleagues launched a Vechur Conservation Trust in 1998.
The Kerala Livestock Development Board, which was established under the aegis of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for holistic development of livestock, joined the effort subsequently. The board, which focused on import of high yielding animals, launched a project to conserve and propagate the cute variety by creating a Vechur cow population at its farm in Trichur district through insemination. The board has now has started production and distribution of frozen semen of the cow. Vechur has also been included among the Indian native cattle breeds in the Calendar of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on ‘Cattle Breeds of India,’ published by the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR). Vechur is the first among Kerala cattle, all of which were hitherto referred to as nondescript, to get the stamp of approval as a distinct breed from ICAR. Vechur aroused interest of scientists because of its size, low maintenance cost and medicinal properties of its milk. A Mexican cow measuring one metre in height was considered the smallest earlier. But after a seven-year-old Vechur cow, Diana, entered into the Guinness Book of World Records last year as the smallest bovine in the world with 77cm in height, it is regarded as the smallest cow in the world. The maximum height of a Vechur cow is 91cm. This cow weighing 107kg (average) can give an average yield of three litres of milk daily which is the yield of the Mexican cow too