Northern Territory Government Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries

13.1Riverine Buffalo and Crossbreeding Project

Riverine buffalo were imported from the USA between 1994 and 1997. They served as the foundation herd for riverine buffalo now spread through all Australian states. They laid the foundation for the buffalo dairy industry and provided the capability to expand export opportunities. Cross breeding allowed for a greater rate of expansion using existing swamp buffalo as a base. Crossbreeding also improved growth rates by 40% for meat production over that of the swamp breed, allowing for an improved ‘TenderBuff®’ product due to a younger age at slaughter, which improved meat tenderness and subsequent profitability. It has also allowed dairy farmers to get into buffalo milk production more rapidly, using cheaper first and subsequent crosses, while backcrossing to riverine. This project aims to build the Australian riverine buffalo population as rapidly as possible by expanding the purebred and backcross lines and making them available to the industry. Imported Italian dairy buffalo semen has facilitated the expansion of the herd whilst avoiding potential inbreeding problems that could be caused by the small starting population base. The target is a 100-animal purebred breeder herd able to turnoff around 40 purebred heifers to the industry per year.