Milk composition of Murrah buffalo grazing on pasture in the Municipality of Taipu, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Abstract Text: Brazil produces 27.75 billion liters (L) of milk annually, with 92.3 million L coming from buffalo.  There are 2,500 establishments registered with the Brazilian Association of Breeders of Buffalo. It is estimated that the country has 2 million buffalo, with 82,000 contributing to milk production. Previous research indicates that buffalo-derived milk has numerically greater fat and total solids when compared to milk from dairy cattle, making it valuable for the dairy industry, especially in the production of mozzarella. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the milk composition from buffalo within a herd at Tapuio Farm (Taipu, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) during the dry season (January to March). Total milk production was measured from 300 multiparous females each d over 1 wk. Samples of milk were collected from each female 3 times over the same wk. Immediately after collection, samples were sent to the Department of Animal Science at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, for analysis. An overall average was obtained for milk production and composition from the entire herd. The milk composition results are shown in Table 1 which compares the national average of buffalo, dairy cattle, and the results from this study. The farm's average milk production was 2500 kg/d, with an average individual animal production of 8.3 kg/d. This is above the national average of 7 kg/d for buffalo. However, numerically reduced values were observed for fat and total solids when compared to national averages for buffalo. This may have been due to poor pasture quality, caused by regional drought at the time of sample collection. These results reaffirm the superiority of the milk composition of buffalo compared to dairy cattle. With the improved milk composition of buffalo, it is possible to achieve a 40% yield improvement in the industrialization process when compared to the yield from cattle. This improvement in yield results in increased economic returns to the producer.

Table 1. A comparison of milk composition between buffalo¹, cattle¹, and buffalo at Farm Tapuio

Nutrient (%)	Buffalo	Cattle	Farm Tapuio
Fat	7.15	3.5	6.42
Protein	4.15	3.6	4.56
Lactose	4.95	4.5	4.55
Total solids	16.86	11.9	16.52
1 Results reported as a national average (Santos et al., 2001).

Keywords: Buffalo, milk composition, yield