The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: waterbuffalofarmer on December 21, 2015, 11:47:10 am
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I know some of you wanted to see pics of my buffaloes, so here they are! If you would like to see some more pics here is a link to my twitter account.
https://twitter.com/Tammypuddleduck
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They look distinctly mellower 8) than the African version :relief:
Beautiful creatures, but how do you sit them on their bums to trim their feet ::) ?
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Yes they're are. They're an entirely different breed to the African one, their genetic pool being different to the cape buffalo, so they cannot actually breed with the cape buffalo, nor can any buffalo breed with a cow. To trim their feet we get a contractor out and he pops them in a turnover crate and does their feet. Our buffaloes are handled from birth and are really soft, they absolutely love attention. :)
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Very nice :thumbsup:
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They look great.
But where do you sell the meat? And what sort of price/kg do you get?
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Is the plural not buffalo?
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You're quite right verdifish. According to Italian buffalo farmers the herd is only known as buffalo if there is a bull present. The female I think are actually called buffalai, but we call them buffalo to avoid confusion :roflanim: we did at one time sell the meat landovery but we're focusing on making mozzarella. 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.
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They are beautiful and I loved the mozz I had in Italy so would love to try your mozz and the beef.
Landroveroy could you be tempted by a couple of bull calves to keep Buttercup company.......?
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well Buffy we should be in production mid next year, all being well. The facilities are almost ready to be signed off now, so not too long away we hope.
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Landroveroy could you be tempted by a couple of bull calves to keep Buttercup company.......?
Oh yes! I could be tempted to keep anything different.
Buttercup, however, is still not entirely sure if she is bovine or human. She is at present living safely with the rest of the cattle as they've been taken off the riverbank and so can't push her into the river (again).
Her one true love was Howard, :love: so whether another male could ever replace him in her affections is debatable.
Anyway, I read somewhere that buffalo are good at removing gates with their horns and I can't deal with any more excuses as to why my cattle have got out. :relief:
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Only when they're bored though. We have had one or two do that before, but not very often. They're easier to handle than cattle and since a few years ago we halter trained them from birth. By the way I meant to say buffaloes and cows dont mix, they just dont seem to like each other.
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Oh well - that's that then. :knit:
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I guess buffalo dont speak cow ??? . But then Landroveroys Dexterish type cow Buttercup dosent speak Hereford . Which is probably why she gets pushed into the river by them. ::)
Poor Buttercup she got on with the other Dexters though and the Dexter x Highland so I guess even breeds of cow have their prejudices. ;)
Do they have a preferred terrain WBF? Thinking back to my african adventures I was wondering if they did well on poor pasture or waterlogged areas?
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They're quite hardy animals, but I would not recommend them to live in waterlogged areas or poor pasture. That's not saying they can't, indeed they can and can survive well on it, but if they are used to being kept in buildings or on good quality pasture then it is probably best that they didn't. In east Asia they have swamp buffalo which survive well in areas which are waterlogged. The variety we have are river buffalo, better suited to good pasture. There are many varieties of buffalo all over the world, they come in all shapes and sizes, the ones we have originate from Italy. We think there are some Murrah genetics in the mix though, as we have a few with white flashes on their heads and blue and white eyes. I was told that the buffalo with the tightest curling horns are the best for milk yield, better than the broader horned ones, because they usually have some Murrah buffalo genetics in them. The Murrah being one of the highest milk yielding buffalo in the world.
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If anyone would like to buy buffalo meat I know some people who sell their's cheaper than laverstoke and west country water buffalo. http://www.broughtonwaterbuffalo.co.uk/ (http://www.broughtonwaterbuffalo.co.uk/) This is how much we used to sell our meat for, but it was a few years ago now. The people we sell our bull calves to are these https://www.facebook.com/Snowden-Hill-Water-Buffalo-137770706342706/ (https://www.facebook.com/Snowden-Hill-Water-Buffalo-137770706342706/)
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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.
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Thanks for that WBF and its interesting to hear about the different types of Buffalo.
Thanks for the links.
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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. :thinking:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Whats the difference between a bison and a buffalo...?
you cant wash your face in a buffalo...... :roflanim:
So sorry Buttermilk but you lined that one up so beautifully lol ;D
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Whats the difference between a bison and a buffalo...?
you cant wash your face in a buffalo...... :roflanim:
So sorry Pennine but you lined that one up so beautifully lol ;D
I have had that joke said so many times to me at markets :roflanim:
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.
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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.
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Whats the difference between a bison and a buffalo...?
you cant wash your face in a buffalo...... :roflanim:
Well I hadn't heard it before and find it amusing. :roflanim: 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. :thinking:
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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.
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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
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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.