Beginner’s Guide To Raise Water Buffaloes

Beginner’s Guide To Raise Water Buffaloes

Beginner’s Guide To Raise Water Buffaloes

Water buffaloes are part of the cattle family, just that they have a smoother hide compared to the fury cattle. Their horns are much larger, longer and some curve yet with cattle, the horns are bracket shaped, facing down and or not there at all.

The unique quality of their milk and dairy products increase their value being the Italian Mozzarella cheese, which is famous throughout the world, is made from water buffalo milk. Also, water buffalo farming has advantages related to the resistance of water buffaloes to natural conditions and diseases, their ability to benefit from feed and to turn poor feed into meat and milk, and finally, their low cost compared with cows.

For beginner farmer, it would be a great benefit for the family to learn how to process cheese and it could be an extra income generator for the livelihood of that family. Just like cattle, all persons tending to milking should at all times are clean and every milking canister used must be disinfected always.

Traits Importance For Water BuffaLos


Water buffalo traits need to be viewed because no farmer would want to breed an unproductive animal which will incur unnecessary expenses for the farmer.

Let’s look at the brief description on the traits to look at on your animal overall being;

Important Traits Key Beef Production Features Key Dairy Production Features


Physical appearance  Body condition, shape and colour.


 Structural traits and dimensions.  Body condition, shape and colour.


 Structural traits and dimensions.


Health  They are mainly disease resistance.  They are mainly disease resistance.


Management  Calving ease and temperament.  Animal longevity and milk let down.


Production  The body size, age, growth rate and weight to slaughter.


 Carcass quality (leanness) and the percentage of the quality.  Milk yield and concentration of milk solids.

Traits associated with management may also be worth considering because increased longevity is important for a number of reasons.

If the animal lives longer, farmers can have the opportunity to sell excess animals or expand their herds, both of which would increase the potential for income for the maintenance of the family.

Increased longevity also allows for more opportunities for genetic selection. Because disease often leads to death or culling, the animals that live the longest are often those most resistant to health problems.

Animals with long legs, straight barrels and tight skin are generally assumed to be stronger and thus favoured for draft purposes.

Breeding Selection


Selection could be placed on traits associated with reproduction, health and longevity, body characteristics because of wide variability in the amount of information available for selection of buffaloes in different countries.

There are quite a number of different methods of selection of females and males based on the need of each farmer.

The primal performing selection will be on farmers and artificial insemination (AI) service providers, which include government agencies because the approaches available will likely differ, even within the same country.

The Criterion Used By Farmers IS AS Follows;


Dam selection – the selection among females is available, such as when females are purchased, farmers should select females on the basis of expected milk or meat producing ability or (considering the conditions under which the animal will be raised), reproduction, health and structural traits.

Meat producing ability will primarily be based on body size and appearance of muscularity.

When no records are present, selection for producing ability must be based on the physical characteristics of the animal. Certain physical attributes can give a clue to milk producing ability.

A farmer that decides to begin a record-keeping programme; a minimum amount of data must be kept to be of value for future selection and selling decisions.

• Bull selection – inbreeding can be a particular problem in areas where bull availability is limited. Also among the factors that farmers may need to consider the breed and age of the bulls.

In countries where crossbreeding is practiced, a farmer may simply want to ensure that a bull of an exotic breed is used to ‘upgrade’ their stock consisting of unimproved local animals. How To Raise Buffalo.

Alternatively, the breeder may attempt rotational crossing, and may have a specific breed in mind with regards to age, choice of the youngest available bull may be optimal in many situations.

Using the youngest bulls tends to decrease the chance that the bull had already been used within the same herd (perhaps even to produce the animal to be inseminated) and thus decrease the likelihood of inbreeding.

Housing For Water Buffaloes


Farmers want to keep animals in enclosed place where they will not be vulnerable to predators and thievery.

In order to protect your livestock, it would be ideal to first of all know the most used from of housing and material used to construct the animal’s housing.

In some countries, farmers have ample land where they can make a small dam for their animals and still have pasture area. Yet in some places, farmers would wan to construct a feedlot type of housing for their animals.

Housing Area For Your Animals;


 A simple steel cattle holding yard would work effectively as a holding area for water buffalo, and are known to be used for water buffalo on farms. Having a holding yard such as this behind-the-scenes would be recommended, as it is not particularly aesthetically pleasing.
 Another option would to simply have an extension of the exhibit, separated by fencing/gates, to be used as an adjacent holding pen. This would also be useful when slowly introducing new animals to the exhibit.

Holding Area Specification;


• Short term – animals should be enclosed for at least a maximum of not more than 48 hours whereby animals must be able to freely stand up, stretch and turn around. The length should at least be three times the animal’s length and the breadths of the enclosure is at least one and a half times its length, and have adequate protection from the weather. Also allowing safe access for the keepers and does not include blind spots.
• Medium term – holding enclosures (periods greater than one day and up to 90 days) the holding enclosures size must be satisfactory to the Animal Husbandry Department (Director General).
• Long term – holding enclosures (periods greater than 90 days) must be satisfactory to the Director-General, who has the power, upon an application, to vary the size requirements for the long-term holding enclosures.

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