Did you know that water buffalo are the true buffalo? Meaning that they are actual buffaloes whereas the native American bison often goes by the misnomer of “buffalo” but are actually bison and are not buffalo at all. So I guess you can say the CU Buffs should really be called the CU Bisons, or change their mascot! Ha Ha ha.
Water buffaloes are originally from Asia and have been domesticated for about 4,000 to 6,000 Years. The domesticated water buffalo genus and species is Bubalus bubalis. They are slightly smaller than the wild variety. There are two sub-varieties of the domesticated water buffalo, the river buffalo and the swamp buffalo. The river buffalo are better for milking and do better on hay than the swamp variety. We have river buffalo at our homestead.
Our small little heard is made up of two females and a male. They joined our farm January of 2025. The females are called “cows” and the males are called “bulls.” So technically the females are “cows” too but that tends to be confusing since in our day-to-day language we think of cows as being from cattle.
August of 2025 is when the females calved and gave us two healthy bull calves. This is the first season these water buffalo have ever been milked. It started off as quite the rodeo! But they have settled into their routine and love their treats during milking time, we still have to be cautious though compared to our cows (the cattle variety).
Their temperament is completely different than cows/cattle. They are eager to be friends and want to your attention and to be petted and scratched. But they jockey each other to get to the front of line and sometimes butt their heads so again it’s just very different than cattle. They are often more easy to lure with our attention than treats! In the hot summer they absolutely love being sprayed with a water gun. The calves are sweethearts and we think the future generations that grown up on this homestead will be even friendlier but also we’re hoping more gentle and docile.