Buffaloes Breeds in Sri Lanka

Murrah
Murrah is a milk type buffalo  and is known as pride of Haryana. The home tract of Murrah buffalo is Rohtak, Jind and Hisar districts of Haryana in India. It is also found in Nabha and Patiala districts of Punjab and around Delhi .


The physical characters of Murrah
1. Body: Sound built, heavy and wedge shaped.
2. White markings on face and leg extremities may be there but are not generally preferred.
3. Eyes: Should not be walled i.e. the cornea should not have whiteness.
4. Tail: Long reaching up to fetlock joint with black or white switch up to 8.0 inches.
5. Horns: Different from other breeds of buffaloes; short, tight, turning backward and upward and finally spirally curving inward. The horns should be somewhat flattened. As the age advances the horns get loosened slightly but spiral curves increases.






Nili-Ravi
This breed is found in Sutlej valley in Ferozepur district of Punjab state and in the Sahiwal district of Pakistan.  The head is elongate, bulging at top and depressed between eyes.  The muzzle is fine.  The frame is medium sized.  The peculiarity of other breed is the wall eyes.  The horns are small and coiled tightly.  The neck is long, thin and fine.  The naval is very small. Usually the color is black with white markings on forehead, face, muzzle and legs and their average weight at maturity is 800 kg for the male and 525 kg for the female.
Nili-Ravi buffalo is also a milk type of buffalo breed. The milk yield is 1,500 to 1,850 kg per lactation and the heritability for this trait is 0.2 to 0.3.  They have a large, strong udder and are generally docile. Average age at maturity is 30 months in males and 36 months in females. Longevity of production is good.
The inter-calving period is 500 to 550 days.  The age at first calving is 45 to 50 months.  The bullocks are good for heavy trotting work.