Buffalo population growth in Argentina

CRUDELI, G.; KONRAD, J.L.; GARRIDO, M.J.; MALDONADO VARGAS, P.; PATINO, E.M.

Cartagena de Indias

Congreso; 11th World Buffalo Congress; 2016

Asociación Colombiana de Criadores de Búfalos

First buffaloes arrived to Argentina at the beginning of twentieth century. Many attempts were carried out to get hybrids between beef cattle and buffalo, however those attempts failed because chromosomal differences. Buffalo production took up again at the beginning of the 1980s. There is a wide underexploited region on the north of Argentina that can reach about eight million hectares. This area has a stocking rate of one buffalo every two hectares. The aim of this work was to assess the growth of buffalo population in the last years in Argentina. Data from the National Service of Animal Health and Agriculture and Food Quality (SENASA for its acronym in spanish) from different provinces of Argentina during the years 2014 and 2016 were used. Seven categories were taken into account and percentage difference between each one, on both years, were evaluated. Continuous data were analyzed with MIXED procedure of SAS. Buffaloes inhabit 21 provinces out of the 23 that integrate the national territory. There are not Buffaloes existence in Chubut and Tierra del Fuego, the coldest provinces of Argentina. Considering the division of the country by region, the northeast region of Argentine (NEA), composed by Formosa, Corrientes, Chaco and Misiones provinces, concentrates 85% of the total Buffalo population. The percentage of contribution from the different categories to the total Buffalo population is as follow: buffalo cow (45.55%); buffalo heifer (14.64%); female buffalo calf (10.98%); male buffalo calf (11.63%); young buffalo steer (13.27 %); and buffalo bull (3.93%). Buffalo population in July 2014 was 87711 head, whereas in March 2016 the population reached 101555. These finding represent an annual growth of 9.47%. Buffalo production in the country and mainly in the NEA is in true expansion and presents all conditions and competitive advantage to become a successful production system.