DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › Draft Animal Power › Oxen › water buffalo – age to start training
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Nat(wasIxy).
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- May 12, 2009 at 9:50 am #40547
Nat(wasIxy)
ParticipantHi,
I have the chance of a buffalo calf but it will be mother suckled and weaned so approx. 6-7months old and pretty much unhandled. Do you think it would be possible without a lot of drama and struggles to train it for work? I have only worked with hand reared (non buffalo) calves from just a few weeks old and they have turned out very good; I’m not sure if I’ll get the same end result this way but I’d very much like a buffalo ox and there’s none any younger available.
Also, does anyone know if buffalo will mix well and live happily with ‘normal’ cattle? i will inititally start off with a small beef herd of buffalo so the calf mentioned will have the company of it’s own kind but obviously they’ll all be burgers one day and he’d be left living with my oxen. Would this be cruel or do they mix readily?
May 12, 2009 at 1:52 pm #52327Tim Harrigan
ParticipantI do not have much experience with water buffalo but we had a team at the MODA gathering two years ago and they seemed quite agreeable. I think they would get along very will with your bovines. I am sure there are some differences in temperment and other mannerisms but they were not obvious with casual observation. I would go about training them the same way I would a bovine of that age. First gain their trust and teach them to lead with basic commands, then develop age-appropriate expectations for behavior and level of work. Should be fun.
May 14, 2009 at 5:52 pm #52329Participantthanks for that – you couldn’t see a problem with starting a calf later though? given that its been suckled by it’s mother and not handled?
May 14, 2009 at 7:24 pm #52328ParticipantYes, it will be a little more difficult because it will be more independent, bigger and stronger but it should not be a problem if you communicate a clear sense of behavior and expectation.
May 15, 2009 at 2:39 am #52321Vicki
ParticipantBecause you’ve already successfully trained calves, you should be fine training an older one. Gain trust, then respect. Depending on the animal’s disposition, it could be pretty easy. I think water buffalo are generally pretty tractable and quick to learn; the ones at the MODA Gathering were and the ones I saw in India were. Since you cannot as easily physically overpower an older calf, just try to be smarter than it and set up the situations to help achieve the response/behavior you want. Sounds like fun.
May 15, 2009 at 3:13 am #52324Gulo
ParticipantWe have two water buffalo about 2.5 years old now and trained to pull in the harness, though not doing any real work yet. I’m going to get them on the spike tooth harrows this summer for short spells.
We believe water buffalo are more personable, gentle, tractable and probably more intelligent than cattle. I understand that when feral adults of the domestic type are rounded up from the wild, even full grown males can be handled with relative safety in a matter of weeks. So, this said, you shouldn’t have much problem. Putting them in halter and leaving them tied for increasing intervals is an excellent first step to getting them used to handling. My only advice having trained ours is to be easy with the goad or stick or crop or whatever you use for handling. Being very gentle and in our experience affectionate animals, they are very sensitive to an overzealous hand and being too disciplinary with them is a good way to have them panic and to loose control of them!
As far as other animals go, ours get along well with our clydesdales and yaks. Interestingly, they seem to identify slightly more with the horses than with the yaks. If the two herds are separate, the buffalo will usually choose to be with the horses – the horses are more tolerant of them than they are of each other at times. Nonetheless, they also like to spar with our yak bull and our subordinate team buffalo became a babysitter for newborn yaks, keeping everyone away from the baby until momma returned. They are fascinating, majestic and endearing animals. If you have a body of water for them on hot days, oh boy do they love this! They will dive right under water.
Good choice and good luck!
May 15, 2009 at 9:31 am #52330Participantsounds like it could be a go-er then! I cant imagine anything MORE intelligent and gentle than my oxen! 😉
May 16, 2009 at 12:54 pm #52322ParticipantOK, Gulo, you’ve got me wanting a pair of water buffalo for myself!
Where are you located, and from where did you obtain yaks?
May 19, 2009 at 2:07 am #52325ParticipantI am in south-central Alberta. Our yaks came from two herds, one just north of us and another west of Red Deer, Alberta – the latter probably the largest herd in Canada, now. Yaks originally came to North America via Canada, and i think until the past decade or so we had the largest herds, but in fairly recent years many were bought by Americans. I may be wrong, but i think the largest yak herd on this continent is now in Nebraska.
If I lived in a warmer climate, i would be working on a herd of water buffalo. They are majestic and fascinating animals. We really like the yaks, too. We are building a small herd. Whether or not we stay with them will depend on how well they milk for us.
May 19, 2009 at 11:04 am #52331ParticipantOut of curiosity – what noise do the buffalo make? do they moo?
August 30, 2009 at 2:20 pm #52326ParticipantThey moo loudly – actually say “moo” much more so than a cow, in my estimation – sometimes drawing the sound out long and very loud, terminating at times with loud “whoof” at the end. Also, for close-up communication, they make a variety of frog-like bleats, which they sometimes elaborate on by moving their tongue around.
August 30, 2009 at 9:23 pm #52323bivol
ParticipantGulo, you really got me interested in buffaloes! only, i think i’ll have to go to Hungary to get them.
i have a couple of questions:
are they castrated?
would you post some pictures of your buffaloes in harness?
and about yaks (maybe it’d deserve a new thread, but…)
did you plan on training yaks to work? either on saddle or in yoke, they should turn heads in fairs….September 3, 2009 at 8:56 am #52332Participantsadly the deal fell through so I don’t think I will get chance to have a go with buffalo, at least for a while! oh well…
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