Water Buffalo Forage Converters

Turkey Creek Water Buffalo

Home Buffalo in the News Breeding Information Buffalo - Mozzarella Cheese WB Links

WB Meat Water Buffalo Pictures Water Buffalo Stories WB Types

WB Bulls WB Heifers WB - Milking Master Page Water Buffalo Semen

GRASS FARMER STORY - THE AMAZING FORAGE CONVERTERS

They have been called a lot of different names but high on the list is forage converters. They are a marvelously intelligent - docile and curious animal . They can exist and thrive where most animals starve. Have you guessed it ? Water Buffalo - that’s right. Domesticated for over 5,000 years water buffalo are anything but new to the animal kingdom. In fact , there is a world population of over 180 million and in the United States - a population of about 3,500.

Why - you might ask - so many world wide and so few here ? Who knows but it may will be just because they are able to convert forage so well. We -living in the land of plenty -have not needed such a animal before. In the rest of the world , water buffalo have craved their own niches . From South America to SE Asia ,through the middle east and into the Balkan nations , water buffalo cater to many different markets . Mainly because they are so adaptable. For instance , in the early 1900’s as they were being imported into Argentina , the ship they were on capsized off the coast of Brazil and many made there way to shore. There in the Amazon region with tremendous yearly floods - they survived quite well ! Today , with many more importation’s ,water buffalo are a thriving industry throughout South America.

Egypt - lands of sand ? Yes but they also grow some of the worlds best cotton. And water buffalo have made their way into the feedlots. There - they feed out nicely with cottonseed products as their main nutritional source . Water buffalo provide Italians with true mozzarella cheese. Although they give roughly ½ the milk of a cow - their milk is twice as high in butter fat and contains 20 % more solids. It is a very tasty product and has qualities quite different then mozzarella made with cows milk. In SE Asia , we find water buffalo full filling a number of tasks. Plowing rice paddies, pulling the family wagon to town, leather and horn goods and providing milk and meat for nutrition.

O.K.- but how do they do it ? They are a ruminant much like a bovine. However , water buffalo digestive system works at a much slower pace . This enables them to break down feed stuffs in a more efficient way and get more out of the forage. There are two basic kinds of water buffalo. Swamp with 48 chromosomes and river with 50 . They will inter-breed amongst themselves but not with bovines. They have large durable feet - I have never heard of a case of foot rot. They have thick hides and enjoy wallowing which provides natural resistance to many insects. They have long lives 25 to 30 producing years is not uncommon.

What I find truly amazing is their adaptability and their ability to convert forages. From the salt flood plains of Venezuela - the marshes of Argentina, Montana - wherever , water buffalo convert forage . They have the ability to turn rough ,sparse forage into a low cholesterol, excellent tasting meat or milk . What more could you ask of a ruminant ?

We - The Turkey Creek Company - have been raising these wonderful animals since 1985. In 1990 we liquidated our beef cows and now are raising only water buffalo. We reside in Texarkana , AR and are happy to answer any questions.

Back to Top or to - Turkey Creeks News Page - just click !