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Nagpuri buffalo Photo: Navneet Kaur · Pexels License · source ↗

Nagpuri buffalo

Nagpuri is a medium-sized dual-purpose buffalo of the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra, registered with NBAGR. Locally called Berari, Gaolavi or Varhadi in different talukas, it is the dominant indigenous buffalo of the cotton-soybean-orange belt around Nagpur. The breed is valued for its hardiness, draught capacity and rich milk fat under low-input conditions.

Origin and distribution

The home tract is Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldhana, Chandrapur and Gondia districts of Vidarbha. The breed has spread into adjoining parts of Madhya Pradesh (Chhindwara, Betul, Balaghat) and northern Telangana through cattle fairs at Nagbhid and Pusad.

Morphology

Nagpuri is light to medium in build with a long body, short stocky legs and a slightly drooped rump — a classic draught conformation. Adult cows weigh 380-420 kg and bulls 450-525 kg. Coat colour is black, occasionally with white markings on the face, legs and switch. Horns are the breed's most striking feature — long (up to 100 cm in bulls), flat, sword-shaped, sweeping backward and outward almost parallel to the back. The udder is small to medium with cylindrical teats.

Productivity

Lactation yield is 800-1,200 kg over 290 days. Milk fat averages 7-8% and SNF above 9% (Milk Fat Snf Pricing) — modest absolute milk but rich and well-paid in cooperative procurement. Inter-calving interval is 16-18 months. Bullocks are powerful — a pair can plough 0.4 ha/day in black cotton soil and pull a 1.5-tonne cart over 25 km, which historically made Nagpuri the buffalo of choice for cotton-jowar farming.

The breed shows good heat tolerance, tick resistance and resilience to fodder scarcity during pre-monsoon months.

Management

In Vidarbha smallholder systems, animals graze fallow fields and bunds for 4-5 hours daily, are stall-fed 4-5 kg dry roughage (cotton/jowar stover) and 2-3 kg home-made concentrate (Concentrate Feed Mix Dairy), and receive a daily wallow in summer. ICAR-CIRB and MAFSU operate breed-conservation herds at Nagpur; community-bull programmes supply pedigree Nagpuri bulls. Mastitis (Mastitis Dairy) and ticks are the two main herd-health issues; routine teat dipping and a monthly pour-on acaricide handle both.

See also: Pandharpuri buffalo, Marathwadi buffalo, Murrah buffalo, Milk fat & SNF pricing.

Sources

  1. Nagpuri buffalo — NBAGR breed profile. ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal.
  2. Nagpuri — Dairy Knowledge Portal. National Dairy Development Board.