Dairy buffalo breeding in countryside of China

Abstract

Chinese buffalo is of swamp type, mainly distributed in countryside of 18 provinces in southern China. China has the third population of buffalo in the world. There are 22.75 million buffaloes in China in 2005, representing 17.37% of all cattle in the whole country. Historically Chinese buffalo is mainly used for drought since their milk production is very low with an annual milk yield of 500–700 kg. Therefore, it is important to improve them to change into dairy buffalo through crossbreeding with exotic river type dairy buffalo breeds. Murrah and Nili–Ravi, the most famous river type dairy buffalo breeds in the world, were introduced from India and Pakistan in 1957 and 1974, respectively and used to crossbreed with indigenous Chinese buffalo for genetic improvement. The effect is very prominent that the performance of crossbred has been improved significantly after several decades and the milk yield reaches 1200–2000 kg. Recent years in countryside of China, buffalo rearing has been changed from extensive and dispersive model in the past into specialized small or medium dairy herd model for the present along with the rapid development of dairy buffalo breeding and the model of dairy buffalo breeding sub–district has been formed. This article introduces briefly that the system of dairy buffalo breeding as well as producing, processing and selling of buffalo milk under the current condition and the prospects of dairy buffalo development in countryside of China.