From the same Bovidae family, cows and buffaloes are both large and domesticated animals with multipurpose aptitude for milk, meat, and draft power. Their geographical distributions and the quantity of reared animals reflect the amount of information that we have about farming these two species. Cows are worldwide spread, and their nutritional requirements are well established and standardized. On the other hand, domestic water buffaloes, commonly known as buffaloes, are mainly found in Asia and, in recent decades, have expanded into Mediterranean areas and Latin America (1).
Although they exhibit similarities, these two species also show 7 crucial differences that every practitioner should know. Awareness of these morphological, behavioral, and other differences is a key component of efficient animal husbandry.
Prefer to listen to this article? Click the play button below and enjoy our podcast!
1. Behavior
Being reared in a wide range of environments and highly domesticated, cows display more docile behavior and are more familiarized with human interaction. Buffaloes, mainly raised in tropical and humid regions, are less domesticated, so they require from the practitioner an added skill and careful handling, furthermore, they present a heavier and robust body, larger and prominent horns, which require extra care.
2. Digestive System
Although cows and buffaloes, as ruminants, share a unique digestive system that allows them to convert vegetal biomass into high valuable end products, their digestive morphology and physiology differs from one to another. Knowledge about these differences enables the practitioner of information which will help to have a conscious approach, when breeding these animals, (2).
In addition to the length of the digestive system being longer than cows, buffaloes eat in a slower rhythm, have a smaller dry matter intake, leading to a more efficient mastication. Beyond all this, buffalo rumen appears to have certain features which contribute for a better digestibility in comparison with cows, allowing them to better convert the low-quality forage into a valuable product, under the same production system (2).
3. Growth Performance
While cows thrive in different environments and different production systems, buffaloes tend to exhibit a better weight gain performance when grazing on open pasture rather than fed concentrate rations. Although buffalo weight at the slaughter may be superior to cows, mostly due to the weight of the head, horns, hide and hooves, in terms of carcass they present a lower dressing percentage and lean yield than cows (3).
4. Thermoregulation Systems
Both are capable of regulating their own body temperature, but under extreme hot conditions, they can suffer heat stress. Cows were mainly bred under temperate regions, and buffaloes, even dough raised on tropical regions exhibit an inefficient thermoregulation system.
Nevertheless, buffaloes have some traits which help to dissipate the heat, such as, the thickness surface and black color of the skin, larger sweat glands but fewer, and another difference between them is the number of hair follicles, buffaloes have much less, making them more exposed to solar radiation than cows. Because of these features and with a much higher exposure to extreme temperature, buffaloes need additional adaptation heat mechanisms, to dissipate it, on comfort levels. Therefore, they require shade, flood zones, ponds, mud or high number of water points available (2).
5. Breeding Seasonality
Breeding seasonality can be influenced by numerous factors like, environment, daylight hours, food available, production system, among other factors. When they are domesticated and bred in intensive systems, the seasonality tends to decrease, on extensive systems, the impacts are generally higher (2).
In terms of reproductive aspects, cows and buffaloes display several differences, for started, buffalo have a more delayed puberty, long post-partum anestrus, (1), and is far more difficult to detect estrus cycle, because the normal behavior associated at this stage is less pronounced (4). The gestation period for cows is on average 280 days, buffaloes are a little bit longer, 300 days, on average (2). Concerning the main reproduction season, buffaloes favor the winter over summer, as far as cows are concerned, normally all seasons are suitable for reproduction, (1).
6. Disease Resistance
The majority of diseases that cows are susceptible to, buffaloes are also to, and even though their natural habitat consist in hot and humid regions, buffaloes show better resistance or less symptoms to disease like mastitis, lameness and ectoparasites (1).
Less incidences of mastitis on buffaloes appears to be due to anatomical and physiological characteristics of the mammary gland, creating a barrier for microorganisms. Regarding the ectoparasites, vectors of many diseases for both cattle, the wallowing buffalo’s behavior, used to thermoregulated temperature, helps them to interrupt the life cycle of the ectoparasites, leading to less symptoms. Another disease that happens quite often in animal rearing and have a major impact on the welfare of cattle, is lameness, and again due to some morphological and metabolic differences, buffaloes exhibit less susceptibility than cows, (2).
7. Milk and Meat Production
Cows' main end products, milk and meat are well exploited and established all over the world, concerning production and standardized quality measures. Buffaloes, due to scarce information and research, the primary traded end product is milk with an outstanding nutritional value, used to produce dairy products. According to FAO, they produce on average of 1 500 and 4 500 liters per lactation, and comparing to the major producer, cows, buffaloes exhibit a longer productive life, providing calves and milk until they are up to 20 years of age.
In regards to meat production, it’s hard to compare these two species because buffalo meat predominantly comes from the end of their productive life and claims the absence of their own quality grading system (3). Nevertheless, there is evidence showing that buffalo meat has less cholesterol, a positive feature, but less marbling than cows, thereby having a negative impact on consumers, (2).
Take-Home Message
As a practitioner, it is important to understand these differences between cows and buffaloes, to achieve better livestock breeding. Once we have this knowledge the productivity and economical feasibility as well the well-being of the animal is guaranteed.
References
Borghese A. FAO REGIONAL OFFICE FOR EUROPE INTER-REGIONAL COOPERATIVE RESEARCH NETWORK ON BUFFALO (ESCORENA) BUFFALO PRODUCTION AND RESEARCH Antonio Borghese Consiglio per la ricerca e la sperimentazione in agricoltura ISTITUTO SPERIMENTALE PER LA ZOOTECNIA FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2005. 2005.
Bertoni A, Napolitano F, Mota-Rojas D, Sabia E, Álvarez-Macías A, Mora-Medina P, et al. Similarities and differences between river buffaloes and cattle: Health, physiological, behavioral and productivity aspects. J Buffalo Sci. 2020;9:92–109.
Rodas-González A, Huerta-Leidenz NO. Water buffalo versus cattle under similar rearing condition. I. Growth and carcass performance. Animal Frontiers. 2023 Dec 1;13(6):32–41.
Tomar AS, Navadiya D,, Singh D, SMK, APH and IMM. Behaviours 2024. Vigyan Varta an International E-Magazine for Science Enthusiasts. 2024;5(7):10–7.
Gateway for dairy production and products- Dairy animals, Buffaloes. Novembro de 2024. https://www.fao.org/dairy-production-products/dairy/buffaloes/en
Leave your comments here