An Introduction to Buffaloes

[River Buffaloes]

There are some cons of having Buffaloes.

1) in my personal opinion they are not suitable for extensive farming. You cannot put them on a several thousand acre ranch and after few years gather them and load them on trains. They have a tendency to go feral if they don't get human interaction for a long period of time ask Australia.

2) their psychology and sociology. They have a strong social hierarchy. If you introduce a new Buffalo on your farm, your Buffaloes will try to fight her to see whether the New comer is dominant or submissive. Artificial insemination is not very successful in Buffaloes and female Buffaloes will only accept strong mature males. They are not into twinks.

3) they cannot produce milk like some dairy cattle breeds like jerseys and HFs. Ours produce 2-3 gallons of milk only. Some Buffaloes of breeds like Jafrabadi, Murrah and Nili Ravi can produce upwards of 5 gallons of milk. Some exceptionally good Buffalo might produce 8-9 gallons of milk, but they are extremely rare. They can't compete with cows who can produce 15 gallons of milk.

4) Buffaloes Take a long time to mature and their pregnancy is longer by a month. A Buffalo heifer can calf in less than 36 months, where as a cattle heifer can calf at about 24 months. Still it takes 5 years for a Buffalo to get fully mature. They live live into their twenties. My friend have a Water Buffalo who is 30 years old and last year she delivered her 26th calf. Dairy industry wants animals who grow fast and die young.

5) in West people have only ever tasted cow's milk,so the dairy industry don't need to introduce a new species. In the East people have a taste for Buffalo milk, I for example will never drink cow milk. Once you taste Buffalo milk, it's yoghurt, tea, cheese etc you will never like cows milk. Cow's milk tastes watery. Cow's milk is for old, sick, babies and poor people who can't afford Buffalo milk. In Western countries people don't like fat, even though cow's milk contains more cholesterol. We can keep buffaloes because their milk costs twice as much as cow's milk and so do Buffaloes.

6) they are intelligent, always suspicious of unfamiliar things and people, they are very affectionate and have a tender heart. If you hurt them they will not co-operate, they can be stubborn. You have to be kind with them, like you are with your dog. They are happiest when their owners interact with them. When we are working with them and around them we constantly talk with them. Dairy industry have no time for that kind of silliness.

 

[River Buffaloes]

the walls are brick and very high, it that to discourage predators?

The main predators we have are tigers, leopards and golden jackals. The wall is a barrier only for the jackals. Tigers never enter villages, once in a blue moon there's a news about a young subadult male tiger is roaming in the fields. They are usually chased out by mature dominant males. The folks from the forest department come and they relocate them in a new forest far from villages.

A few years ago in the neighborhing State of Uttar Pradesh a female tigress (id T1) became man-eater and allegedly killed 13 people before she was tracked and shot. There was a big uproar after she was killed. Case like that are very rare though. I don't know anyone who has lost a family from tiger attack. They do take animals who wonder off in the reserve.

Leopards are more interested in dogs and cats, they cannot escape with a Buffalo.

The wall is mainly to protect Buffaloes from cattle raiders and thieves.

 

[Kusanar]

the second reason is that there's a taboo against eating old meat

Curious about this. What defines old meat? Like amount of time since death or actually going bad? Here we can freeze meat for a year, sometimes more, would that be "old meat" because it has been dead too long or would it be ok because it has been kept preserved.

I love learning little things like this about other cultures.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Curious about this. What defines old meat? Like amount of time since death or actually going bad? Here we can freeze meat for a year, sometimes more, would that be "old meat" because it has been dead too long or would it be ok because it has been kept preserved.

I love learning little things like this about other cultures.

The former, not the later. Old means old. People here like eating fresh meat straight from the butchers block to the pot. There's no such thing as preserved meat.

People don't even like fish that has been frozen in ice. Fishermen (usually their wives) sell life fish in the market.

 

[Kusanar]

The former, not the later. Old means old. People here like eating fresh meat straight from the butchers block to the pot. There's no such thing as preserved meat.

People don't even like fish that has been frozen in ice. Fishermen (usually their wives) sell life fish in the market.

Then you guys would absolutely HATE our "good" meat at steakhouses. They like to serve 30 day aged meat like that is a good thing. I don't know that I have ever had meat that fresh. Even deer we hang for a few days before we cut them up and put in the freezer or cook it.

I understand it is a completely different climate. Traditionally people would butcher large animals like cows or pigs in the fall or winter when it was cold, so you would have a few days to get everything salted or smoked before it started going bad. But that meat also had to last you pretty much all year because you can't butcher a large animal in the summer unless you have a large population to eat it all very quickly like you do.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Then you guys would absolutely HATE our "good" meat at steakhouses. They like to serve 30 day aged meat like that is a good thing. I don't know that I have ever had meat that fresh. Even deer we hang for a few days before we cut them up and put in the freezer or cook it.

I understand it is a completely different climate. Traditionally people would butcher large animals like cows or pigs in the fall or winter when it was cold, so you would have a few days to get everything salted or smoked before it started going bad. But that meat also had to last you pretty much all year because you can't butcher a large animal in the summer unless you have a large population to eat it all very quickly like you do.

I would not hate, I believe in trying different food. I hate preconceptions. The thing I hate most about your food is the lack of spices and salt. For goodness sake it's 2021, not 1118. Spices don't sell for the price of gold!!!

 

[Kusanar]

I would not hate, I believe in trying different food. I hate preconceptions. The thing I hate most about your food is the lack of spices and salt. For goodness sake it's 2021, not 1118. Spices don't sell for the price of gold!!!

Lol! yeah, now, nothing wrong with a steak that's just salted with maybe some garlic and onion powder on it, but Indian food is good too. Unfortunately, most ethnic restaurants around here are either Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Thai), or Mexican, we don't get much variety. Last time I had Indian food my husband and I had gone to a Sikh temple (my husband is a religions teacher in high school and tries to expose the kids to as many real people in the different religions as possible either in person or on a video call) and got to eat lunch after the service with them.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Lol! yeah, now, nothing wrong with a steak that's just salted with maybe some garlic and onion powder on it, but Indian food is good too. Unfortunately, most ethnic restaurants around here are either Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Thai), or Mexican, we don't get much variety. Last time I had Indian food my husband and I had gone to a Sikh temple (my husband is a religions teacher in high school and tries to expose the kids to as many real people in the different religions as possible either in person or on a video call) and got to eat lunch after the service with them.

Me and your husband would make good friends. I am also very interested in religion, philosophy and logic. I am a devout Catholic too.

 

[Mini Horses]

We are not a country of heavy spices. Most often our ethnic cooks are where we learn spice utilization. So many were not available in our background, often because many were not grown here, in pioneer days.

I love learning customs and cooking from other countries. Italy has great herds of buffalo. And their cooking far different. They do sell fresh/live seafood at shore side town markets, as well as butcher rabbits for you on the spot! Another country where they shop fresh daily, having more limited storage resources.

 

[Kusanar]

Me and your husband would make good friends. I am also very interested in religion, philosophy and logic. I am a devout Catholic too.

The area where he teaches is low income, most of the kids don't know anyone that isn't Christian of some sort of another, so he tries to make sure they are aware of the other religions and see the people that follow them as people and not scary monsters like they tend to grow up thinking. He has gotten a Hindu gentleman to speak to them, we were going to take any of them that were interested to the Sikh temple but that was right before Covid shut everything down. He has had a few other people speak to them as well but I can't think of them off of the top of my head. I find it all very interesting but I'm not into studying it as much as he is.