[Penninehillbilly]

We sell our bull calves to a buffalo farmer in Yorkshire. The price is more expensive than cow beef due to the fact that it is lower in cholesterol than cow beef. I can't really remember how much we used to sell it for as it was a long time ago. If you look up, not laverstoke, I think its west country water buffalo and their website should say. Beautiful meat though.

When I took billy goat to local abattoir I went  to the cold room to collect skin, there were a couple of heads+horns there, chap said they were buffalo,  but not sure what sort, one had incurve horns, other had wide outward, impressive.
But I see your man is S.Yorkshire,  must be someone else.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Thanks for that WBF and its interesting to hear about the different types of Buffalo.


Thanks for the links.

[landroverroy]

It certainly is interesting and I would love to keep some if they could just be marketed in a standard livestock market, instead of having to arrange ones own marketing.

Every time I get anything slaughtered privately, be it pig, sheep or cattle, I worry that I'll be left with a mountain of meat. The last highland bull I got done - we had someone give backword on £300worth of meat. So I don't know if East Yorks is ready to try buffalo meat.        

[Buffy the eggs layer]

I would have some LLR.


People do change their mind about meat from the farm unless you have a good deposit. They think its like the supermarket. If you dont buy it this week it goes in the land fill but you can go back to the supermarket the following week and you will find all the chiller shelves full again. Its availability without responsibility.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

If you do decide to rear buffalo and sell the meat landovery, it would be fantastic. One word of warning though new laws have come in about the methods of killing a buffalo in an abbatoir. Origionally they used to bolt stun them at the back of the head, because if they did it at the front of the head it would only splinter the skull because a buffaloes skull is 10 times thicker than a cows skull. You have to buy a special bolt gun for stunning or the abbatoir have to use a rifle to kill them, not ideal. Silly laws they are. Their excuse was that if you stun them at the back of the head you can't take a brain same to test for mad cows disease and yet if you shoot them its somehow different. As far as records go back buffalo have never, ever come down with mad cows disease, as theyre not bovine. I am not saying they can't catch it though, but there has never been a recorded case of it happening in buffalo.

[Buttermilk]

What are buffalo?  I always thought that they were a bovine species.

LLR when I was a young chick I think there was a herd of something like buffalo at Bishop Burton, or were they bison?  Are bison a bovine species?  I am all confused and confuddled now, must be too much sherry in the mince pies I am munching for breakfast.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Whats the difference between a bison and a buffalo...?


you cant wash your face in a buffalo......


So sorry Buttermilk but you lined that one up so beautifully lol 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Whats the difference between a bison and a buffalo...?


you cant wash your face in a buffalo......


So sorry Pennine but you lined that one up so beautifully lol 

I have had that joke said so many times to me at markets

Neither species fall into the category of bovine.
The latin name for water buffalo is bubalis, bubalis. The latin for American bison, Bison bison
The latin for Domestic cattle, Bos taurus.
They're listed in the cattle category because it makes it easier for the government.  The reason why bison can breed with cows is because they have a similar  cell numbers, I think cattle have a higher cell number than buffalo which is why they cannot breed, in fact scientists have tried and failed to breed buffalo and cattle because their cells are incompatible.  According to wiki though they're all bovids which means grass eaters ( I think). However they're not bovine, as bovine is the latin word meaning bos, which means ox and they're not oxen, latin for cattle IE bos.

[Buttermilk]

So they are sort of related like horses/zebras/donkeys. Horses 62 chromosomes to donkeys 64.  Crossing the high number onto the low is more successful than the other way round.

[landroverroy]

Whats the difference between a bison and a buffalo...?


you cant wash your face in a buffalo......

Well I hadn't heard it before and find it amusing. not often you get a joke so perfectly apt.

Iwould quite happily rear a buffalo for meat if you wanted the whole carcase Buffy. It's what's left after you've had some that gives me cause for concern.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Yeah you are right I think that would be rather allot of meat. I think I will just try a meat box from a yorkshire supplier.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

So they are sort of related like horses/zebras/donkeys. Horses 62 chromosomes to donkeys 64.  Crossing the high number onto the low is more successful than the other way round.

You could say bison are, but buffalo are not in the least related to cattle. Buffalo can't breed with either cattle or bison at all, scientists tried creating them in a lab too, but their DNA was incompatible. Also water buffalo cannot breed with the African cape buffalo, again their chromosomes are different to one another making it impossible. The cape buffalo even has a slightly different Latin name compared to the water buffalo

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Yeah you are right I think that would be rather allot of meat. I think I will just try a meat box from a yorkshire supplier.

Try Snowden hill water buffalo, they have a page on Facebook, their websites down atm, if you can't contact them though I could always ask them for you. They're based in north Yorkshire I think.