Murrah Buffalo

Buffalo Overview

Buffaloes are also called water buffaloes. There are two broad categories of buffaloes.They are river buffaloes and swamp buffaloes. Buffalo milk has very high percentage of fat and SNF (Solids but Not Fat). Buffaloes are also very resistant to diseases and adapt well to indian climate. Due to these reasons, professional dairy farmers are prefering buffaloes and hence buffalo milk production is on the rise in India.


Buffalo Varieties

There are various buffalo breeds in India like Murrah, Nili Ravi,Haryana(Hariana),Mehsana, etc. But Murrah buffalo is the best buffalo breed for milk production. Hence we have are giving details of Murrah Buffalo here.


Murrah Buffalo

The Murrah breed of Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a breed of domestic water buffalo kept for dairy production. It is originally from Punjab and Haryana states of India and Punjab province of Pakistan, but has been used to improve the milk production of dairy buffalo in other countries, such as Italy, Bulgaria and Egypt. In Italy, it is the basis of Mozzarella cheese production, and therefore Italian Pizza. By Italian law, Mozzarella may only be made from buffalo milk, which is preferred for its very high butterfat content, up to 10% compared with 4% for European (Bos taurus) dairy breeds such as Jersey cattle and 6% for Zebu (Bos indicus) breeds such as Sahiwal. Murrah breed of buffalo, the pride of Haryana, is a milk type animal. The home tract of Murrah buffalo is Rohtak, Jind and Hisar districts of Haryana (India). It is also found in Nabha and Patiala districts of Punjab (India) and around Delhi . The Murrah buffalo is good milk producer, not only in India but also probably in the world. The bulls of this breed are extensively used to upgrade the non-descript buffalo stock. Graded Murrah buffaloes are also usually available in various parts of India.


Murrah Buffalo Sales and Suppliers

There are many sellers who procure murrah buffaloes from the breeding tracts and sell them to other parts of the India and the world. If you are new to dairy farming, it will be difficult for you to directly procure animals from Punjab or Haryana. So better find a reliable murrah seller who can deliver the buffaloes to your farm.


Murrah Buffalo Price

Due to heavy demand in the past couple of years especially from andhra pradesh dairy farms, the murrah buffalo cost has been rising every year. The current prices range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 85,000 for a murrah buffalo for dairy farms. If you are into breeding and participating in competitions then the price can be as high as Rs 10 lakhs. Murrah buffalo cost depends various factors.

Some of them are listed below:
Mild Yield
Lactation
Look and feel of the animal
Pedigree

Murrah buffalo cost in andhra pradesh is a bit higher due to transportation cost and the risks involved in transporting them from nothern india.


Physical Characteristics

    Some of the important physical characteristics of Murrah are given below:
  • Body : Sound built, heavy and wedge shaped.
  • Head : Comparatively small.
  • Face : Comparatively long.
  • Neck : Comparatively long.
  • Body colour : Jet-black. White markings on face and leg extremities may be there (2, 3), but are not generally preferred.
  • Eyes : Should not be walled i.e. the cornea should not have whiteness.
  • Tail : Long reaching upto fetlock joint (2, 3, and 6) with black or white switch upto (maximum) 8.0 inches (4).
  • Horns : Different from other breeds of buffaloes; short, tight, turning backward and upward and finally spirally curving inward. The horns should be somewhat flattened. As the age advances the horns get loosened slightly but spiral curves increases.
  • Limbs : Comparatively short but strong built.
  • Skin : Soft, smooth with scanty hairs as compared to other buffaloes.
  • Udder : Fully developed, drooping.
  • Teats : Equally distributed over the udder but hind teats are longer than fore teats.
  • Loin : Broader and sliding forward.
  • Body weight : The average body weight of males, 550 Kg and the females, 450-Kg.
  • Height : The average height at withers; male: 1.42 meter; female: 1.32 meter.
  • Age at fist calving : 3 years but we have also the buffaloes, which calved at 3 years with good milk production.
  • Inter-calving period : 400 to 500 days.
  • Lactation period : 300 days. (with minimum of ~230 days recorded under top quality Murrah)
  • Daily lactation in peak period : 14 to 15 litter but upto 31.5 Kg milk production had also been recorded. The elite Murrah buffalo produces above 18-litter milk per day. A peak milk yield of 31.5 kg in a day has been recorded from a champion Murrah buffalo in the All India Milk Yield Competition conducted by the Government of India.
  • Dry period : About three months. But less than three may be there.
  • Gestation period : 310 days (average)


Murrah Buffalo Photos

Some of the murrah buffalo photos are shown below: