Origin & Breeding Tract:
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Jaffarabadi buffaloes are good milkers and thrive well on natural grazing. These buffaloes characteristically differ from other breeds mainly in terms of kilo fat. They are very efficient in the conversion of roughages into milk with a high butter fat content. Males are good draught animals for hauling heavy loads.
Jaffarabadi is the heaviest of all the Indian breeds of buffaloes. It is also called as Bhavnagri, Gir or Jaffari. The breed is named after the town of Jaffarabad. These buffaloes are found in large numbers in this area, especially in the Gir forest area which is also inhabited by the famous Indian lion.
The main native tract of Jaffarabadi buffalo is Saurashtra region of Gujarat especially areas in and around Gir forest viz., Junagarh, Bhavanagar, Jamnaagar, Porbandhar, Amreli and Rajkot districts. The breeding tract lies between 20° 5’ and 22° 6’ N latitude, and between 70° and 72° E longitude. Jaffarabadi buffaloes are distributed approximately in an area of 64,339 square kilometres excluding the Kutch region. Soil in the breeding tract is salty clay to clay and typically medium black, with high water holding capacity. Climate in general is tropical monsoon. Rain is common during June to September and the annual rainfall ranges from 50 to 100cm.Average temperature ranges from 20° to 36° C.
Physical Characteristics:
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Some of the important characteristics is described as follows: -
Body colour - The usual colour of the animals is black but few animals having grey colour or white spotes on forehand, feet and tail switch are also seen.
Horns - The horns are inclined to droop on each side of the neck and then turn up at the tips, the curls being not as tight as in the Murrah breed. The horns usually emerge out by compressing the head, go downward sideways, upward and finally forming a ring like structure.
Marking - Rarely white markings on forehead,feet and tail switch may be there.
Eye - Horns makes eyes to look small, termed as sturdy eye, and especially in males, sometimes it leads to blindness.
Tail - Medium in size
Body - The adult Jaffrabadi animals have usually long massive and comparatively compact and fat body.
Head - Head is big and massive.Forehead is prominent being convex in 86.42% adult animal (Tajane and Dutta, 1998). The bone of forehead is wide and covers the eyes partially to give characteristic “Sleepy Eyes” appearance, especially in adult males.
Neck - Neck is broad and thick
Ear - Ears are long and horizontal.
Udder - Udder is well developed. Pendulous and round udders are found in almost equal proportions. Forequarter is slightly larger than the hindquarter.
Teats - Teats are mostly funnel shaped and have pointed tips. Milk vein is medium in size.
Production Traits:
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• Average lactation length (days) - 305.1 ± 9.61(70)
• Average lactation milk yield (kg) - 2238.7 ± 74.87(70)
• Average Fat% - 7.68 ± 0.04(2060)
