Buffaloe Husbandry

Animal production in Tropics

Tropical Bovids Husbandry Guidelines

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O R G A N I C S C O M P A N Y
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 Taxonomy – African buffalo

» Class: Mammalia

» Order: Cetartiodactyla

» Family: Bovidae

» Subfamily: Bovinae

» Genus: Syncerus

» Species: Syncerus caffer

• S.c. caffer (S and E Africa)
• S.c. nanus (W and Central Africa)
• S.c. brachyceros (W Africa)
• S.c. aequinoctialis (Central Africa)

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 Taxonomy – Asian buffalo

» Class: Mammalia

» Order: Cetartiodactyla

» Family: Bovidae

» Subfamily: Bovinae

» Genus: Bubalus

» Species:
• Bubalus arnee
• Bubalus bubalis

= water buffalo

= domestic buffalo
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 Asian buffalo = Water buffalo

» Wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee)

• India, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand
• IUCN Red List: Endangered
• 4,000 / 2,500 or fewer individual ?, decreasing trend

• Dark-grey to black, long narrow head, relatively small ears, large

splayed hooves, horns
• Larger and heavier (600 – 1,200 kg)

• Ancester of domestic buffalo

(most likely)
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 Domestic watter buffalo
» Precise info on domestication period & origin unclear

» ??? 4 000/5 000 yrs ago, Euphrates and Tigris ???

» Two domesticated subspecies/types

» River and swamp buffalo

• Domesticated separately, in the Indus valley and China ???
• Alternatively swamp type emerged in Eastern Asia by
introgression of wild buffaloes in an early domestic river buffalo
population
• Do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur
• BOTH DEPENDENT ON WATER
 Domestic watter buffalo

» Important farm animal in tropical and subtropical climates

» 2020: app. 207 millions of individuals in total

» 95% in Asia (India, Pakistan, China, Nepal)

» 2% in Africa (particularly Egypt)

» 2% in South America (Brazilia)

» Less than 1% in Australia and Europe

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 Domestic watter buffalo

» Important farm animal in tropical and subtropical climates

» 2020: app. 207 millions of individuals in total

» 95% in Asia (India, Pakistan, China, Nepal)

» 2% in Africa (particularly Egypt)

» 2% in South America (Brazilia)

» Less than 1% in Australia and Europe

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 River buffalo (B. bubalis bubalis)

» 70 percent of the world water buffalo population

» India, Pakistan, Near East

» 50 chromosoms

» Comparatively longer faces, smaller girths & bigger limbs

» Horns grow downward+backward, then curve upward

» Prefer deep, clean, running water

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 River buffalo (B. bubalis bubalis)

» Milk !, meat, manure, draft

» Lactation lenght: 220 – 305 days

» 700 and 2 500 (4 500) litres of milk per lactation

» Longer productive life than cattle, up to 20 years of age

» Factors constraining commercial buffalo milk production

• Late age at first calving
• Seasonality of oestrus
• Long calving interval & dry period

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 River buffalo (B. bubalis bubalis)

» Milk !, meat, manure, draft

» Lactation lenght: 220 – 305 days

» 700 and 2 500 (4 500) litres of milk per lactation

» Longer productive life than cattle, up to 20 years of age

» Factors constraining commercial buffalo milk production

• Late age at first calving
• Seasonality of oestrus Maybe more 8 % (China 12.6 %)

• Long calving interval & dry period

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 Swamp buffalo (B. bubalis carabensis)

» Mainly in Eastern Asia

• Rice – growing areas
» Draft, manure, milk, meat
» 48 chromosomes
» Smaller
» Lower milk yields
» Heavy-bodied and stockily built
» Grey skin at birth, but become slate blue later
• Albinoids are present in some populations
» Horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the
plane of the forehead
» Prefer to wallow in mudholes
 General characteristics

» No dewlap or hump

» Body type
• River = dairy cattles
• Swamp = draught power

» Covering & pigmentation varies

• Result of indiscriminate breeding without selection criteria

Tedong bonga - Sulawesi 19

Morphological variation in Asian water buffalo breeds. (a) Shanghai, swamp type
from China; (b) Toraja Spotted, swamp type from Indonesia; (c) Sylhet, swamp type
from Bangladesh; (d) Mediterranean river type; (e) Murrah, river type from India; (f)
Nili-Ravi, river type from Pakistan. Photo credits -(a) Shengli Zhang, (b) Eka Meutia
Sari, (c) Md. Omar Faruque, (d) Caterina Cambuli, (e) Md. Omar Faruque, (f) Yi
Zhang. 20
 Breeds of buffalo

» River
• India: Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Surti
• Milk type + work: Jaffarabadi, Bhadawari & Mehsana

• Pakistan: Nili-Ravi & Kundi

• Egyptian, Iraqi & Italian = high milk production potential
• Iranian: draught & meat

» Latin America (Brazil) = meat + milk

• Indian Murrah, Jaffarabadi, Nagouri,Surti & Nili-River + Italian
• Brazil Murrah, Jaffarabadi & Mediterrano

» Swamp
• Large diversity & classification into breeds is difficult
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 Adaptability of buffalo

» Adaptable to wide range of environments (versatile)

• Swamp < river

» Less adapted to extreme heat or cold than cattle

• Body temp lower Free access to water or mudpools to help in
heat dissipation !
• Skin is heat absorbent
• Sparsely protected
• Less sweat glands = poor sweaters
• Huge effect on semen quality
• Recovery is quicker

» Less affected by high humidity

» Prefer to wallow than seek shade 22

 Adaptation

» Wide-splayed hoofed feet

• prevent them from sinking too deeply in the mud and allow them to move about in
wetlands and swamps

» Digestive tract and digestion

• Higher digestive system efficiency including absorption one
• Able to digest plants which are indegistible (or difficult to digest) for cattle
• Carex spp., Phragmites spp. Etc.

• Better use of nutrients

• High rumen volume relative to body weight
• survive well on low quality roughages

• Difference in the composition of rumen fauna

• Slower passage of chyme 23
 Reproduction - COW

» Puberty generally later than cattle (2.5-3 years)

• Swamp buffaloes later than river breeds

» First heat/estrus

» 13 to 33 months

» Mating at 1st oestrus often infertile

» Best results after 3 years of age

» Less intense signs

» Not seasonal
• Cycle 21 days
• BUT reproductive efficiency variable during year
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 Reproduction - BULL

» First breeding at 2-3 years

• Spermatogenesis starts earlier (1 – 2 years)

» 4-5 years vs 6-7 years vs 10-15 years of successful breeding

» Naturally or AI
• 2 x weekly semen collection for 3 years
• Higher intensity of semen collection – deterioration of semen quality

• Buffalo bull semen – smaller volume (1.3 – 4.5/8 ml) , white, slightly acidic pH (6.2 – 7)
• Effect of season on the semen quality !
• Semen quality better in swamp buffalo
• Low libido in summer can improve with AI

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 Breeding

» Success affected by semen quality changes

» Gestation length: 300 – 320 (299-346) days

• Swamp buffalo 1 – 2 weeks longer
• 1calf (twins ˂ 1 %): 24 – 41 kg

» Information on service period, dry period & calving intervals vary

• Depends on breed & management

Buffaloes in India 26
 Growth and production

» Liveweight
• Generally: females smaller 300 – 450 kg, males 500 – 600 kg (1100 kg)

» Birth: 27-41kg (large) & 24-30kg (medium) affected by season (summer > fall)

» Growth rate is linear until 36 mo (0.4-0.5 kg per day) then 0.3kg

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 Buffalo utilization - Milk

»Yield = 700-2 500 (4 500) kg

»Fat = 6.6-8.1 %

»Protein = 4.2-4.6 %

»Milk
• Fermented (Dadiah - Indonesia)

»Cream

»Butter

»Yoghurts

» Cheese (e.g. Mozzarella) …

 Buffalo milk production

» The countries with the largest numbers of

dairy buffaloes are: India, Pakistan, China

» In Pakistan, Egypt and Nepal more dairy buffaloes than dairy cows

» Water buffaloes are the principle source of milk in South Asia

• Well-known specialized dairy buffalo breeds: Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Kundi, Surti, Jaffarabadi,
Bhadawari and Mehsana

» Small-scale producers in developing countries, one or two animals in mixed crop–

livestock systems
» In recent decades, breeding programmes
• Especially in Bulgaria, China, Egypt, India and Pakistan
• Attempts to improve the milk yield of river buffalo
 Milk production in Italy

»Average milk yield high in Italy

• 2 000 – 3 000 kg of milk in a standardized lactation length of 270 – 277 days

»High productive capacity

»Management is exclusively intensive

»High energy and protein level

 Buffalo utilization - Meat

» Meat is tasty and lean

» South American and Asian countries:

• Extensive - pasture or poor crops, no use of high energy diets
• Low daily gains (500 g) and producing bulls weighing 400 kg at about two
years

» Italy:
• Daily gain 800 - 900 g, weight 400 kg within 15 months

» Not economical to produce animals heavier than 450 kg (costs & fattening)
 Husbandry and management
» Depends on breeding purpose

» Similar to cattle
• Extensive x intensive

» Easy to handle

» Need lots of water (75l/d)

» Need more space than cattle (24m2 for 6; 1.5-2m high walls)

» Bulls - need to be separated from heifers of the same age before 300 kg live-
weight
• otherwise pregnancies may occur

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 Husbandry and management

Dehorning – possible but nit often

» Advantages: less aggressive, less dangerous, less bruising in yards, trucks and at
meatworks, and less room required on trucks …

» Avoid: mixing pollen and horned animals – social problems

» Need to be considered: trophy, predators …

» Hot iron (2 to 4 weeks of age) or scoop dehorner (up to 3 months)

Castration

» Knife and elastrator rings

» After four months of age - usually after weaning

» Castrated males (steers) will deposit fat earlier than bulls

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 Housing

» Simple housing is needed to protect the animals from direct sun

» According to number of animals

• Simple shelters, sheds

» Calves and heifers should be housed

separately

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 Housing system

» Traditional system in Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Syria

• Keeping buffaloes indoors at night
• Confined in fenced areas during the day

» In the favourable season they are allowed to graze during the day (Romania, Turkey
and in some farms in Italy)

» In the marshes of south-west Iran, buffaloes are kept outdoors on pasture all year
long, whereas in the northern areas around the Caspian Sea they are kept in barns
only in winter
» Lactating buffaloes are kept tied all year long in Bulgaria, Romania and Azerbaijan

» In Italy they are housed loose in paddocks all year long, utilizing the same modern
systems used for dairy cows
• Feed composed of maize, silage, concentrates, hay, straw and sometimes by-products
 Feeding

» Digest feeds more efficiently than do cattle

» Feeds of poor quality and are high in cellulose

» Similar feeds as in cattle

» Wider range of plants than cattle

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 Feeding
» Fed green forages indoors and outside are left grazing (Egypt, Iran, Turkey,
Syria, Greece)
• Concentrates are used more in Romania and Azerbaijan

» One third of Iraq's buffaloes wallow in marshes all year round

• Water reaching up to the middle of their body
• Swim far for feeding and when the water is high

» Grazing in the favourable seasons is practiced everywhere at least for some of

the buffaloes, except in Azerbaijan and Iraq.

» Green forage "cut-and-carry" in the favourable season composed of grasses,

legumes (varying from country to country) plus concentrates and by-products
 Diet
» Green fodder + straw

» Concentrates (lactating cows !)

» Similar to cattle
• Lower protein

» Lactating cows
• According to milk production
and milk fat
• 1.5 kg of grain/4.5 l milk

• Optimal protein: 12 - 15 %

» Non-lactating cows
• Protein: 10 -11 %
 Diet

Calves

» Usually mother milk suckling

» Bottle feeding – not so often

• Only intensive dairy farms
• Feeding 3 x/day
• Skimmed milk or whole milk
• 2 – 3 week of age grass and grain
• 10 – 12 week silage

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 Diet

Fattening

» Similar to cattle

» Extensive (pasture)

» Intensive
• High daily gain (800 -900 g) for a low slaughter weight (400 kg) – 15 months
• Lower daily gain (500 g) for a low slaughter weight (400 kg) – two years
• Low daily gain (200 g) for a high slaughter weight (683 kg)

• Not economical to produce animals heavier than 450 kg (costs & fattening

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 Water

» App. 40 – 80 l

» Factors:
• Breed
• Stage of lactation and milk production
• Water quality
• Ambient temperature

» Generally
• Dry matter intake per day in kg x 6
• Plus 1 litre of water per every litre of milk produced daily
• Plus additional allowances for extremes of weather

» Water for thermoregulation - pools, mud-wallows, showers 42

 Health

» Similar to cattle & can use same vaccinations

• Less susceptible to FaMD
• More susceptible to haemorrhagic septicaemia (Pasteurella multocida )
• vaccinate against pasteurellosis

• Less resistant to TB (Mycobacterium bovis)

• Mastitis is huge problem

» Major losses due to calf mortality

• Poor management + waterborne diseases

» Other
• Brucellosis (-), ticks (+), screw-worm (+), roundworms (- calves), liver fluke (-),
trypanosomosis (-)
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