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Jaffrabadi buffalo

Jaffrabadi (also spelled Jaffarabadi) is a heavy riverine buffalo breed of Gujarat, registered by the ICAR National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources and profiled in the buffalopedia of ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB). It is the largest indigenous Indian buffalo breed and is valued for thick, fat-rich milk that is well suited to ghee, paneer and khoa production.

Origin and distribution

The breeding tract lies in the Saurashtra peninsula of Gujarat, covering the districts of Amreli, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Porbandar and Rajkot. Smaller populations are kept in adjoining tracts and in private breeder farms in Maharashtra and southern India.

Morphology

The breed is massive and powerfully built. Adult males reach about 700 kg and adult females about 620 kg, making Jaffrabadi noticeably heavier than Murrah Buffalo. The coat is black, occasionally with a white tail switch and white markings on the forehead. The most distinctive feature is the forehead: it is broad, prominent and dome-shaped, with heavy, flat horns that curl downward, then sweep inward and upward to form a ring around the head and partly cover the eyes. The body is long and deep, the udder is large and pendulous.

Performance

Jaffrabadi cows produce thick, fat-rich milk; commercial farms report milk fat consistently above 8%, with the high fat content driving a strong premium in fat-and-SNF-based procurement (Milk Fat Snf Pricing). Lactation length is comparable to Murrah but average lactation yield is somewhat lower per cow, with peak daily yields driven up by selection in elite herds. The breed is slower-maturing than Murrah, with first calving generally later.

Management

Jaffrabadi requires substantial green fodder and concentrate intake to support its body mass and milk output. The breed has historically also been used as a draught animal in Saurashtra, pulling carts and oil presses, although this role has largely disappeared with mechanisation. Standard riverine-buffalo management — shaded housing with wallow tanks or sprinklers, dawn-and-dusk milking, twice-daily scraping of dung passages, structured deworming and vaccination — applies as for Murrah Buffalo. Crossbreeding with Murrah is common in private dairy farms outside the home tract to combine Murrah's milk yield with Jaffrabadi's milk fat and frame size.

See also: Holstein Friesian Crossbred Cow, Jersey Crossbred Cow, Dairy Shed Design.

References

  1. Jaffarabadi. Buffalopedia, ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes.
  2. Jaffarabadi. Dairy Knowledge Portal, National Dairy Development Board.