Dear Sri Srithika45, Please know the facts about the Murrah Buffaloes .
Origin: The Murrah buffalo is originally from Rohtak, Jind and Hisar districts of Haryana; Nabha and Patiala districts of Punjab states of India; and in Pakistan, but has been used to improve the milk production of dairy buffalo in other countries, such as Italy, Bulgaria, Egypt and Pakistan. The Murrah breed of Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is the premier milking buffalo. In Italy, it is the basis of Mozzarella cheese production, and therefore Italian Pizza. By Italian law, Mozzarella may only be made from buffalo milk, which is preferred for its very high butterfat content, up to 16% compared with 4% for European (Bos taurus) dairy breeds such as Jersey cattle and 8% for Zebu (Bos indicus) breeds such as Sahiwal. In Haryana, Murrah buffalo keeping has a special role as its husbandry has been the way of life. Consequently, Haryana has the privilege of being known as the livestock mint of India. The buffalo of Murrah breed, which is described as the “Asian tractor”, is in fact triple purpose animal — for milk, meat and work.
The Murrah buffalo is the finest genetic material of milk producing buffalo in the world.
Physical Characteristics: Some of the important physical characteristics of Murrah include sound built, heavy wedge shaped body with comparatively small head, long face and neck. It has a jet black colour with white markings on the face and leg extremities but these are not generally preferred. The tail is long reaching the fetlock joint with black or white switch (8.0 inches).the horns are different from other breeds of buffalo – short, tight, turning backwards and upwards and finally spirally curving inward. The horns should be somewhat flattened. As the age advances the horns get loosened slightly but spiral curves increases. The skin is soft, smooth with scanty hairs as compared to other buffaloes. The udder is fully developed, drooping, with the teats equally distributed over the udder but hind teats are longer than fore teats. The loin is broader and sliding forward. The average height at withers for male is 1.42 meter and 1.32 meter for female. The length from point of shoulder to pin bone is 150.9 cm in males and 148.6 cm in females as an average for mature adult Murrah buffalo.
Inter-calving period : 400 to 500 days.
Lactation period : 300 days. (with minimum of ~230 days recorded under top quality Murrah)
Daily lactation in peak period : 14 to 15 litter but upto 31.5 Kg milk production had also been recorded. The elite Murrah buffalo produces above 18-litter milk per day. A peak milk yield of 31.5 kg in a day has been recorded from a champion Murrah buffalo in the All India Milk Yield Competition conducted by the Government of India.
Dry period : About three months. But less than three may be there.
Gestation period : 310 days (average)
The Murrah buffalo is good milk producer, not only in India but also probably in the world (2, 7). The bulls of this breed are extensively used to upgrade the non-descript buffalo stock.
