Nutrition


Most buffaloes are located in countries where land ,cultivated forage crops, and pasture are limited. livestock must feed on poor quality forages, sometimes supplemented with a little green fodder or by-products from food, grain and oilseed processing.usually feedstuffs are in such short supply that few animals have a balanced diet, but the buffaloes seems to preform fairly well under such adverse conditions.
Tropical feedstuff, forest fodders and waste residues are a major part of the buffalo diet. Rice straw ... especially when treated appears to provide good nutrition. Fodder trees, especially the Leucaena sp. deserve special mention as it can be used as fodder, firewood or timber. When used as a fodder it is reported to yield up to 100 tons ber ha. Forest fodders are almost always fed in "cut and carry" systems where caretakers hand cut the leaves(in many cases climbing into the trees) and carry them to the confined buffaloes. A great deal of information on these feeds has been developed by international organizations.
Buffalo raised in more developed areas are generally fed on a similar basis as cattle. They preform extremely well under managed grazing systems and feeder calves can exceed cattle in gain. Small grain silage is fed in some countries. Professor Raul Franzolin in Brazil has done some basic nutrition research which studies the digestive process in water buffalo.

Growth Rate


Insufficient measurements have been taken to allow unequivocal statements about the relative growth rates of cattle and buffaloes. However, many observations made in various parts of the world indicate that the buffalo's growth is seldom inferior to that of cattle breeds found in the same environment.
Trials in Trinidad in the early 1960s involved buffaloes grazing pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens) together with Brahman and Jamaican Red cattle. Over a period of 20 months the buffaloes gained an average of 0.72 kg per day whereas the cattle on a comparable nearby pasture gained 0.63 kg per day(13).
In the Orinoco Delta of Venezuela unselected Criollo/Zebu crossbred cattle gained 0-0.2 kg per day on Paspalum fasciculatum whereas the water buffaloes with them gained 0.25-0.4 kg per day(14).
In the Apure Valley of Venezuela, 100 buffalo steers studied in 1979 reached an average weight of 508 kg in 30 months, whereas the 30 month old Zebu steers tested with them weighed 320 kg. The feed consumed was a blend of native grasses (25% of the diet) and improved grasses (such as pangola, para, and guinea grass(15). In the same valley 200 buffalo heifers (air freighted from Australia) produced weight gains averaging 0.5 kg per day over a 2 year period ( and 72 % of them calved). Government statistics for the area record average weight gain in crossbreeds between Zebu and Criollo cattle as 0.28 kg per day (with 40% calving)(16).
In the Philippines, buffaloes showed weight gains of 0.75-1.25 kg per day, the same as those of cattle(17).
Daily weight gains of over 1 kg have been recorded for buffaloes in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia(18).
Liveweight gains of 0.80 kg per day have been recorded for buffaloes in Papua New Guinea. In a very humid, swampy area of the Sepik River coastal plains, live weight gains made by males averaged 0.47 kg per day and females 0.43 kg per day for more than a year. The average weight of 30 4 year old female buffaloes was 375 kg while the average weight of 4 year old female Brahman/Shorthorn crossbred cattle was 320 kg(19).
At the research station near Belem in the Brazilian Amazon weaned Murrah buffaloes, pastured continuously on Echinochla pyaramidalis (a nutritious grass), gained 0.8 kg daily and reached 450 kg in about 18 months(20).
Liveweight gains of 0.74-1.1 kg per day have been obtained in Australia(21). Buffalo steers grew as fast or faster than crossbred Brahman cattle on several improved pastures near Darwin(22), but on very poor pasture, 4 1/2 year old buffaloes each weighed only 400 kg, whereas the Brahman X steers reared with them weighed 500 kg(23). The reason for this is not clear.

Efficiency of Digestion


Indian animal nutritionists have investigated water buffaloes intensively over the past decades(24). Many have reported that buffaloes digest feeds more efficiently then do cattle, particularly when feeds are of poor quality and are high in cellulose(25). One trial revealed that digestibility of wheat straw cellulose was 24.3% for cattle and 30.7% for buffalo. The figures for berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum) cellulose were 34.6% for cattle and 52.2% for buffalo(26). In another trial the digestion of straw fiber was 64.7% in cattle, 79.8% in buffalo(27). Other nutrients reported to be more highly digested in buffaloes than in cattle (Zebu) are crude fat(28), calcium and phosphorus(29) and nonprotein nitrogen(30). Recent experiments in India suggest that buffaloes also are able to utilize nitrogen more efficiently than cattle. Buffaloes digest less crude protein than cattle in one trial but increased their body nitrogen more (and they were being fed only 40% of the recommended daily intake of crude protein)(31). The abilities of buffaloes to digest fiber efficiently may be partly due to the microorganisms in their rumen. Several Indian research teams have published data indicating that the microbes in the buffalo rumen convert feed into energy more efficiently than do those of cattle (as measured by the rate of production of volatile fatty acids in the rumen)(32). In Guatemala, a large commercial milking herd of buffaloes is maintained only on the waste of African Palm Fruit processing and available pasture(32a). In laboratory studies samples of buffalo rumen contents produced volatile fatty acids more quickly from a variety of animal feedstuffs than did samples from the rumen of cattle(33). No single reason alone explains the buffalo's success in using poor quality forages. rather, it is a combination of reasons that differ with the breed and conditions used. studies by other researchers suggest that additional causes might include : In areas where the quality of feed is very low and concentrates unavailable, reasonably good results in raising nutritional levels has been shown with the feeding of urea. A lick stone of 3 kg composed of 20% urea, 60% molasses, 3% minerals and the rest rice bran can be made at very reasonable cost. Adult buffaloes will finish the lick in about 7 days, representing a daily supply of 80-90 g of urea. This supplementation has shown good results in supporting reproductive activities in cows and growth levels in young animals.

Calf Growth Rate


Although the buffalo's gestation period is more than a month longer than that of cattle, the calves are born weighing 35-40 kg, or about the same as that of a newborn Holstein calf. But because buffalo milk has about twice the butterfat of cow's milk, the calves grow very quickly. They also suffer more shock at weaning and have to be slowly changed to their new feeding program. Buffaloes can be marketed as full grown animals for beef at the age of 2-3 years, sometimes even earlier. for example, in Indonesia it has been found that buffalo steers can be marketed 6 months before Zebu steers because they may be 100 kg heavier(38). In Egypt, some buffalo calves given feed supplements with concentrates weighed 360 kg at 1 year of age(39). At Ain Shams University near Cairo, buffalo calves weaned at 7-14 days of age gained 0.7 kg per day from weaning to slaughter at 18 months of age and weighed 400 kg. Rice straw comprised 50% of the finishing diet. Buffaloes on Italian farms have reached 350 kg in 15-18 months and some year old calves weighed 320 kg(40). Grazing trials on native pasture (with mineral supplementation) in the Brazilian Amazon indicate that buffalo calves grew faster than cattle. At 2 years of age Mediterranean type buffaloes averaged 369 kg, Swamp types, 322 kg, and Jafarabadi type, 308 kg. the Zebu cattle tested with them averaged 265 kg and the crossbred Zebu/Charolais, 282 kg(41).

Feed Preferences


Buffaloes graze a wider range of plants than cattle. During floods near Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon when cattle become marooned on small patches of high ground, many suffer from foot rot and many starve to death. Their buffalo companions on the other hand ...bodies sleek and full .. swim out to islands of floating aquatic plants and eat them, treading water. Also, they dive almost 3 m to graze beneath the flood waters(42). University of Florida buffaloes in a lakefront voluntarily consumed vines, sedges, rushes, floating aquatic weeds, and the leaves and shoots of willows and other trees along the water's edge. Few of these plants are voluntarily grazed by cattle. In northern Australia water buffaloes will graze the very prickly leaves of pandanus; they also graze sedges, reeds, floating grass and aquatic weeds. Hungry buffaloes will eat bark, twigs and other unpalatable vegetation. Because of the variety of their tastes they have been used in northern Queensland, Australia to clear pastures of woody weeds left untouched by cattle. In some countries cattle are used to graze the palatable tops of pasture plants and are followed by buffaloes to graze the less desirable lower parts.

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david j. ligda
djligda@netnitco.net
Last Updated:Monday, February 16, 1998 8:14:19 PM