How to care Pregnant Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Awadhesh Kishore, P.K. Singh* and Rakhi Sharma**

Sarvoday Mahavidyalay, Chaumuhan-281406, Mathura INDIA
*Bundelkhand University, Jhanshi INDIA
**Institute for Development of Technology for Rural Advancement, Mathura-281004 INDIA

Abstract:

Introduction:

The secret of successful buffalo farming is to maintain and increase milk production every year. The key to find a successful story, it is necessary to find a calf every year from the animals. At a buffalo farm it is only possible if she is made pregnant between 60 and 90 days after post partum. The farmer needs to dry his animal at right time and to care properly the animals during last 2-3 months of pregnancy. As such the care and management of buffalo can be explained under two categories viz. care and management during pregnancy and drying off buffalo.

Care and management of pregnant buffalo:

Feeding of buffalo in dry period is often neglected because she is returning nothing in terms of milk. This is the main reason that the high quality fodders and concentrate mixtures are mostly either withheld to this animal or restricted. This in turn has an adverse effect on the growth and development of foetus and mammary glands and replacement of body reserves necessary for better milk production in the next lactation. The farmer should provide about 35 Kg green fodder, 7 Kg straw and 2.5 Kg concentrate mixture to his buffalo of average body weight. Specific attention is also needed mineral requirement of a pregnant buffalo to find out better out pt in the next lactation. In case the concentrate mixture does not contain sufficient amount of minerals, 40, 50 and 70 grams of BIS marked standard mineral mixture should be provided to her during seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy. The pregnant buffaloes should be protected against all the possible injuries because they may cause abortion and anemia. The animals should be avoided to move on slippery surfaces, fighting among the animals and obstructions that may cause injuries. During the pried of pregnancy, a buffalo needs moderate exercise also. She should not be allowed to walk a long distance and the efforts are required to avoid her transportation during this period. The pregnant buffalo should be shifted to a well bedded and disinfected calving pen before two weeks of expected calving date. The calving pen should be well ventilated, isolated and free from disturbances and having freely assessed fresh water round the clock. It has been reported that the best time to deworm a buffalo is a week prior to calving which results in greater milk production especially in high yielding buffaloes. External parasite control and management programmes for lice and ticks should also be implemented during this period.

To avoid udder infections and mastitis in buffalo, the dry therapy should be provided at the end of lactation (after last milking) with long action antibiotic preparation. This therapy not eliminates the sub-clinical infection of mastitis of previous lactation but also prevents new intra-mammary infections and thus increases milk production by about 8-10% from the treated quarters. Hence, a healthy udder is a better milk manufacturing factory.

Drying off Programme for buffalo:

A period between the day when a buffalo stops milking and she calves next is called dry period. In other words dry buffalo can be explained as a pregnant buffalo that does not produce milk. Dry period has a great importance because it provides rest to the udder and an opportunity for buffalo to build up a reserve of body flesh lost during the lactation. Mostly high yielding buffaloes lost their body weight during lactation; because the body tissues are broken down to maintain high milk production potential and huge quantities of nutrients are drained out from the body through milk. The mammary gland of a buffalo functions continuously during lactation, causing considerable wear and tear in the secretory tissues of udder. During this period the nutrient from feed can be utilized repair and regeneration of the secondary cells of the udder, development of foetus and for production of colostrum of a high nutritive quality.

The length of dry period varies animal to animal and depends on the milk production and the condition of the buffalo to be dried off. The buffaloes that are high yielding loose large quantities of nutrients in early lactation and therefore they require comparatively longer dry period to recover the loss of nutrients and to store enough body reserves for the next lactation. Generally, the buffaloes should have body condition score of 2.5 to 3.0 at the time of calving. It has been observed that high yielding weak and thin buffaloes with low body weight requires longer dry period. Normally a dry period of 60 days for high yielding weak and thin buffalo with low body weight and 40 days for dry period for buffaloes in good condition and low yielder is recommended. There are three methods for drying off the buffaloes and these do not naturally stop to produce milk:

1. Stop milking:

It is a very quick method for drying off a buffalo but can be suggested only for those who are low yielder. In this method milking3is discontinued abruptly. Udder creates enough pressure to stop further milk secretion un side the udder from milk glands. The milk present the udder is gradually absorbed by the mammary gland. It is again reabsorbed from the mammary gland into the blood stream to render it completely dried up. The buffalo owners do not adopt thi method because in dairy buffalo, where mastitis is common. The incidence of infection, in this method of drying off, increases. The abrupt drying method of dairy buffalo may cause severe swelling of the udder and may not be successful in buffaloes producing large quantities of milk daily. Feeding concentrate and 66% forage has to be discarded from the buffalo diet three days before stop milking. All the buffaloes cannot be successfully dried off by this method. It is best for high yielding buffaloes to withhold their concentrate and forage supply for 5-7 days prior to stop milking.

2. Intermittent milking:

In this method of drying off the buffalo, she will be milked once a day for a while and then once every other day and by gradually increasing interval and finally milking will be stopped altogether. The milk is gradually reabsorbed as the lactation ceases. This method can be successfully implemented with the slightly high milk producing buffaloes.

3. Incomplete milking:

The buffalo owners, who follow incomplete milking strategy to drying off their animals, start by no extraction of all the milk from the udder at the time of milking for first week after drying off period has started. Later they milk intermittently but never completely and hence the milk production decreases day by day to small quantities and finally it is stopped. The method is recommended for very high milk producing buffaloes in which sudden stop of milking may cause swelling and pain in the udder.

It is thus, presumed that the information made above shall provide proper guidelines to buffalo owners for taking care and management of pregnant buffaloes and to drying off them successfully so that the buffalo can maintain health and production potential in the next lactation to increase better returns.

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Meet the author

Dr Awadhesh Kishore
Ph.D.
Area of writing: Numerous
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