What The Performance of Chinese Water Buffalo is

What the performance of Chinese Water Buffalo is

Rakhi Sharma and Awadhesh Kishore

Institute for Development of Technology for Rural Advancement, Mathura-281004 INDIA

Sarvoday Mahavidyalaya, Chaumuhan-281406, Mathura INDIA

Introduction:

Water Buffalo is abundant in China. Chinese water buffalo population was  2 220 000 animals in 1991 (Huai and Jun, 2012). As per  the latest statistics China has 23,271,909 animals which 12.879% of world buffalo population (180,702,923) (FAO. 2010).

Major breeds of buffalo present in China are  Binhu breed 461 000 head in the Hunan province; Xinyang breed 290 000 head in the Henan province; Enshi breed 77 000 head in Hubei; Fuan breed 70 000 head in the Fujian province; Yanjin breed 45 000 head in Yunnan; Xinglong breed 24 000 head in Hainan and the Wenzhou breed 10 000 head in Zhejiang (Zhang Chunxi and Li Zhongquan, 2001). There are fewer breeds of buffalo which are also important to consider including Haizi breed 65 000 head in Jiangshu; Shanghai breed 36 000 head around the city of Shanghai; Guizhou 1.46 million in the Guizhou province; Fuling 415 000 head in Sichuan; Dehong breed 390 000 head and Diandong breed 220 000 head in Yunnan, Dechang 190 000 head in Sichuan, Xilin breed 59 000 head and Fuzhong 57 000 head in Guanxi and Dongliu 27 000 head in the Anhui province.

Modern water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are traditionally believed to have been first domesticated in the Yangtzi River region during the Neolithic period around 7000 years ago (Chen and Li, 1989). The animals are domesticated for work, meat and milk purposes. It is employed as a draught animal, however, it also also produces meat, horns, skin and particularly the rich and precious milk that gives creams, butter, yoghurt and many cheeses, including the delicious mozzarella (FAO, 2005). They prefer to enter in clear water, and are primarily used for milk production, but are also used for meat production and for draught purposes. This is the reason that the water buffalo is one of the favorite beasts of burden in the wet areas of rural China. Traditionally water buffaloes have been used as working animals in the rice producing agricultural area of China. Water buffaloes are famous for their great strength and endurance to hard work. They are also used for other heavy work i.e. draught vehicles, water wheels and turning millstones, as well as ploughing land and raking the soil.

Lactation Performance:

Wenzhou breed, which is regularly milked and produces 1 020 kg milk in278 days and Jianghan (800 kg milk in 8-12 months) are major milch breeds of buffalo in China. The Fuan breed is also sometimes milked, producing on average 2.6 kg milk/day, in a lactation of extremely variable length: 150 to 300 days (Zhang Chunxi and Li Zhongquan, 2001).

China is the third highest buffalo milk producer in Asia with the total production 2.90 thousand tons after India 60.90 and Pakistan 20.98 thousand tons. China contributes 3.35 per cent of total buffalo milk production in Asia (86.40 thousand tons) and 3.25 of that in world (89.227 thousand tons) (FAO, 2010).

The lactation period of the Chinese water buffalo varies from 8 to 10 months, however, individual differences are too large. The average milk yield in lactation varies from 500 to 1000 kg. The milk of water buffaloes bears higher consistency and large fat globule size and better smell with butter fat and protein content of high quality.

Average composition of buffalo milk in china is variable. Water content varies between 78.24 and 81.26 (average 79.54), Fat 7.4 and 11.67 (10.0), protein 4.5 and 5.95 (5.32), lactose 3.69 and 4.83 (4.33), minerals 0.82 and 0.94 (0.88), solid not fat 9.24 and 11.54 (10.42) and dry matter (Total Solid) 18.74 and 21.76 (20.44) in milk of the Chinese buffalo cow.

Meat Performance:

The Chinese water buffaloes still gained good body weight even in under grazing conditions on lower nutrition level.  The average daily gain of buffalo steers castrated at 2 years old was recorded to be 640 g in the experimental period. The dressing  percent, meat percent, fat percent and bone meat ratio of slaughtered buffalo steers were reported to be 48.5%, 36.9%, 5.41% and 1:3.8, respectively.

Recent Advances:

Murrah and Nili-Ravi bulls are being used for crossbred programmes to uplift local Chinese buffalo breeds. Superovulation and Estrus Synchronization, In-vitro embryo production, Embryo transfer (ET), Embryo cryopreservation and Sex control by separation of X and Y chromosomes have been tested successful in CChina and are being implemented at field level to find uncourageous results (Chunyan et al., 2010).

References:

Chen, Y.S., Li, X.H., 1989. New evidence of the origin and domestication of the Chinese swamp buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Buffalo Journal 5, 51-55.

Chunyan, Y., Chunying, P., Guangsheng, Q., Bingzhuang, Y. and Xianwei, L. 20102. Advances of research on reproductive bio-techniques in buffalo of China. Proceedings 9th World Buffalo Congress, Buenos Aires, April 2010. 72- 75.

FAO, 2005. Buffalo production and research.Ed. by Antonio Borghese. FAO, Rome.

FAO, 2010. 2008 Production Yearbook.

Huai, Q and Jun,I. 2012. Water buffalo and yak production in china. Agri 15,75-91. Ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/v4960t/v4960t05.pdf.

Zhang Chunxi and Li Zhongquan, 2001. Buffalo genetic resources in China. Buffalo Newsletter, 16: 1-7.