Livestock
production system in Cambodia have been playing and increasingly cucial
role in the rural farming and income. However,
generally buffaloes were raised in border of the country in Northeast and
Southwest of the country.Usually,
the farmer raised one pair until pair buffaloes for plowing the rice field, transpotation in upland or low land and sale.
After
statistic, 1999 of Department of Animal Production and Health the number of
female buffaloes decreased at 8% in compare with the last time. It is a
hindrance factor of the reproduction phase for the next generation. In Cambodia
there are available 2 races of buffaloes:
Buffalo Phnom
Buffalo Kdam
The body
weight of buffalo Phnom varied from 500 to 600 kg whereas the buffalo Kdam
weighs from 400
to 550kg.
Moreover,
the animals find the natural available
feed resource themselves on the field. The feed supplementation such as
silage, urea - treated straw or high - quality feed block aren’t used for the
nutrition due to lack of scientific knowledge.
The buffalo diseases are Pasteurellosis and FMD.
Mortality of 19% of
buffaloes is from Pasteurellosis and 1.6% by FMD.
The
reproduction is possible through natural mating but the age of the first calf
is 4-5 years and the pregnant of the buffaloes need a long time of 510 days.
Generally, buffalo milk is only for calf but not for human food but in the future
it may play an important role for food
consumption, therefore we should improve the performance of buffaloes by providing the feed quality through supplying of concentrate, silage and high quality feed block.