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a) Geographical area and background

The "Agricola Volturno Farm" is located in a hilly area, in the Caserta province and in the valley of the Volturno river. Winters are always very cold and Springs register highly variable temperatures which have a very bad effect on buffalo reproduction. The farm covers a surface of 3 hectares with shelters, milking parlour, hay and silage stores, offices and houses for part of the staff. It was established, as cooperative farm, in 1989 with the main goal of selling buffalo milk to dairies. A recent Governmental law, in fact, foresaw particular financial advantages for young people who wanted to start an activity on their own. The farm project was approved in 1992. In the same year the building of the farm started. Milk sales started in April 1993 and the first calvers were milked with a portable milking machine. In May 1993 the milking parlour was ready. The farm has always been assisted by the Livestock Science Division of the University of Naples so that the most innovative technologies were followed.

 b) Shelters for buffaloes

Buffaloes are kept on paddocks made of concrete, with feeding corridors allowing the driving of tractors and unifeed mixer. Daily cleaning is performed by excavators which throw the manure in appropriate storing basins. Manure will be then distributed on the fields. Daily cleaning of the paddocks, together with the careful washing of the udder before milking, make the number of bacteria to be at a much lower level than the one allowed for buffalo milk (law 54/97). Also udder health is favoured: somatic cells are in fact < 200,000 averagely in a year. Beside the concrete paddocks, there are paddocks directly on the ground, which allow buffaloes to walk during Spring and Summer. Paddocks are 90 m long and 15 m wide. Paddocks for lactating buffaloes have a 3 m tall wall on the North side to protect them from winds and are also provided with showers for hot Summer hours. Milking parlour and milk tank are at the centre of the farm. The milking parlour is of "tandem" type, allowing the milking of 12 buffaloes at the same time. Milking is controlled through connection with an electronic program for herd management.

 c) Buffalo groups

Buffaloes are divided in groups according to the days from calving. In our farm strong efforts are in course to modify the calving season (from Autumn to Spring). In Spring and Summer, when milk yield is the highest, we make three groups: 1. older buffaloes, 2. first calvers, 3. buffaloes milked once a day (for those who are 2 months before the dry-off and produce less than 5 kg milk/day). In this way food is more easily distributed. In Winter, i.e. when milk yield decreases, we make only two groups: 1. twice a day milked buffaloes and 2. once a day milked ones. Heifers and non-lactating buffaloes are divided in four groups according to age and pregnancy stage. The dried-off animals are taken to the calving paddock one month before  calving.

d) Rearing of the replacement

We aim to increase individual milk production by performing AI in the season in which reproductive activity is more regular; in the future and for the high-yielding buffaloes we aim to perform AI all over the year.

At present, we cull buffaloes having produced less than the herd average during 2-3 lactations. We put in the herd every year more heifers (8%-14%) than requested by the compulsory culling rate. Therefore we must put much more care in the rearing of the heifers.

Calves are taken away from the dam immediately at birth. They are put in weaning cages located in a building made of reinforced concrete. They receive a bucket of colostrum within 4 hours from birth. They are kept in the cages until they show to be adapted to artificial milk feeding. They are then divided into weaning groups and are fed with a special milk (pH=5.7), given cold, ad libitum, at a concentration of 18% and till the age of 40-50 days. Milk formula was produced by the University of Naples together with a Dutch Company. Calves are then moved to another group, they are fed with the same amount of milk but 20 per cent less concentrated than the previous (145 grams sour instant powder/1 litre water). Calves are fully weaned between the age of 60 and 70 days, when they are at least 70 kg liveweight. During weaning they get silage, hay and a weaning concentrate containing skimmed milk powder and lactic acid bacteria, with the following characteristics:

  After weaning, calves are kept in one group until they are 10 months old. They register a decrease in the growth rate during the first 30 days after weaning, likely due to competition within the group. We are therefore planning to build a shelter for the calves so that it will be possible to divide them into the following age groups: weaning to 6 months; 6 to 12 months; heifers ready for the bull; pregnant heifers.

 e) Feeding

Available land consists of 44 hectares producing forages for the 220 adult buffaloes and the 120 young stock. Eighty per cent of land produce two crops every year: maize +ryegrass. Alfalfa is sown in May on 6 hectares; on the remaining 3 hectares only maize is grown. In this way 54% of dry matter requirements are satisfied. In practice, all maize and the majority of ryegrass for silage are produced in the farm, while hay satisfies only 13.2% of the requirements. The remaining forages (straw and some hay) and all concentrates are purchased. Table 1 refers the basic data of forage production and costs.

Table 1. Forage production, seeding time, losses after silage and hay making, net costs after considering losses (UFL ABA).

Seeding time and crops are very much affected by the location of the farm in a very cold and rainy area. For this reason, seeding of maize grown as the only crop is delayed and yields are not much higher than those obtained with maize in double crop. Moreover, when September is particularly rainy, maize siling is hard, and losses can be up to 26%. Also ryegrass yields are lower than those obtained in areas located 30 km further away. In fact, Springs are also rainy and pre-drying on the field is highly affected. We plan to modify silos by reducing the front area so that spring fermentations will be lessened. In order to reduce hay losses we are planning to make sheafed balls. We are also planning to modify our crops because we believe that UFL given from ryegrass is too expensive; the new plan might be as follows: 38 ha maize as the only crop, 6 ha alfalfa, 5.75% of required silage, 70.2% of required hay and 100% of straw might be purchased. With the new plan, costs might be reduced by 21.5%.

 f) Rations

In table 2 the different rations are reported. Diets have changed during the years, due to the increase in buffalo productivity. In the past, less protein and energy diets (14% and 0.82 UFL) were given. Since 1996 both levels were increased (see table 2). From February to September, when 80% of calving occur, diet is particularly rich. From October to January, when average days from calving are 120-210, diet is lower in energy but with the same protein concentration.

Table 2- Chemical characteristics of diets for lactating buffaloes in the following periods: P1=Spring-Summer; P2=Winter; P3=for only once milked buffaloes; As=dried-off buffaloes; An=female calves; MT=heifers ready for the bull.

 It might look exaggerated to feed 11 UFL to buffaloes which produce only 5 kg milk; however, we have experienced that the reduction in protein and energy level at end lactation causes an early dry-off and high economic loss. But it must be considered that the required UFL for maintenance are 5.75 and the remaining 5 correspond to the production of 5 kg milk, which is much richer in fat and protein at end lactation.

In 1996 and 1997 we registered an increase in average lactation yield by 2.2% and 4.9% respectively, corresponding to an increase in the Raw Marketable Production per head and per lactation by It. Lire 121,000 and 268,000, while feeding costs increased only by It. Lire 160,000. The increase is evident in particular for older buffaloes (>8.25%). The ratio Ca:P in dried-off buffalo diets was also modified from 1.14:1 to 1:1.3; in this way the rate of prolapses was reduced from 11.6% in 1993 to 4% in 1995-1996-1997 and to 0.4% in 1997. We think that such good result was obtained also because the two minerals were no more added to the ration as powder but a special mix of Ca:P in the ratio 1:2.2 was prepared and mixed in advance in the unifeed mixer.

Female calves and heifers are fed the same diet as males because we want to increase body weight and reach an earlier puberty. In Winter, less rich rations are fed in order to obtain a daily gain of no more than 400 g/day. We experienced that alternation of high energy with low energy levels two months before giving heifers to the bull improves their reproductive performances.

 g) Calving distribution and methods used to modify calving season.

Mozzarella cheese demand is the highest in Summer, therefore we were compelled to adopt methods to avoid seasonal calving in order to have more milk in Summer. In the first year of activity calvings were badly programmed due to shortage of money and difficulties in the purchase of heifers (graph 1). Despite of this, milk sold during Spring-Summer was 58% of the amount    how in fact that the number of older buffaloes calving in the wanted season is increasing since 1996. This particular calving distribution allowed also to perform AI from Dec. 1997 to Feb. 1998.

A different method is used for heifers, where the bull is allowed also from mid-March to end August. In fact, in this group, a sufficient number of days between calving and the day in which the bull is taken away must be ensured. By anticipating the date in which the bull is taken away from the non-pregnant heifers, we make the heifers to calve not later than June, therefore first calvers have more than 90 days in which they can get pregnant (June 30^th-Sept. 30^th).

It is known that the adoption of methods to avoid calvings in the non-wanted season increases calving interval and decreases the annual average milk production. As indicated in table 3, calving interval (days) calculated separately for first calvers and older cows ranges from 523 days (1994) to 457 days (1996) in first calvers, while for older cows the highest values of 517 was registered in 1994 and the lowest of 429 in 1996. The higher annual replacement rate increases the calving interval but improves the fertility of the herd. In fact, it is evident from table 3 that fertility in first calvers is always higher than in older cows. It is also known that seasonal calving is more accentuated in older cows, which are more sensitive to the bull effect and might have a slowered uterus involution due to altered mineral metabolism.

 During the first two years of activity, the fertility loss in the herd (=no. of buffaloes which did not calve in the following year) was 39%, because the bull was only for 5 months left in the paddock (7 months is the average time when activity is regular) (table 3). This occurred because many buffaloes had calved shortly before the bull was removed (graph 1). In the following years fertility loss was reduced to 20%, which is considered an optimum value for those herds in which a programme to avoid calvings in the non-wanted season is being applied. The further fertility decrease in 1997 depends only on the reduction in the available square meters for each animal. In fact, a decrease in the conception rate was observed when days were getting shorter, time in which, on the contrary, reproductive activity should be more intense. At that time, however, buffaloes had only 9 square meters available each, a figure which is considered insufficient. More recently, having decreased the number of lactating buffaloes and therefore increased the available space, fertility seems also improved.

In order to increase the number of lactating buffaloes, we are planning to build new shelters for the heifers, in order to allow 15 square meters to each older buffalo.

 Fig. 1 Percentage of calvings per month for every year (pale color=first calvers; dark color=older buffaloes)

 1993                                                                      1994

1995                                                                      1996

1997                                                                       1998

h) Genetic improvement.

When the farm was created, we purchased pregnant heifers, non-pregnant heifers and female calves from officially milk recorded farms having registered the highest milk yield and in good sanitary state (neither brucellosis or tuberculosis in the past ten years). In table 4 average lactation yields are reported (column 1 to 5). Buffaloes are divided according to the farm of origin (row 1 to 5). The number of buffaloes is indicated under the lactation yield. In the same table, age at first calving, culling rate and annual production (1992) of the farm of origin of the purchased heifers is also reported (column 6 to 10).

It is evident that the best buffaloes are from farm no. 2, the top farm in Italy for many years, from which farm no. 1 has purchased the bulls which sired the heifers that we purchased from farm no. 1.

 Table 4. Average lactation yields, age at first calving, culling rate as well as annual production in 1992 in the farms where the buffaloes were purchased.

Different letters on the same column indicate statistical significance for P<0.05.

During first lactation we registered statistically different milk yields for first calvers according to the farm of origin. In the following lactation, differences are not so evident because culling rates were different for buffaloes from different farms (table 4).

More that 60 per cent of the purchased buffaloes from farm no. 2 had an average lactation yield of about 2900 kg; some of them in third lactation overtook 4000 kg; calving interval ranged from 380 to 440 days. A few high yielding animals (> 2700 kg) were even culled for udder damages or death.

Our policy, consisting of culling all buffaloes yielding below the herd average, has lead to an increase in milk production, particularly evident in older buffaloes: + 8.2% from 1995 to 1997. The same does not apply to the first calvers. In fact, in 1997, they registered lower milk yields than in the previous years (table 3). But if the average is calculated without taking into account the animals purchased as calves from farm no.3, the new value is 2300 kg.

Economic loss deriving from our choice of keeping a very high replacement rate is reduced by the fact that we do not sell culled buffaloes to the slaughter house, but because they are pregnant buffaloes with expected Spring calving, their market price is quite high.

Moreover, several buffaloes were served by AI from end December to beginning Febuary in 1996-997 and 1997-998. During the first year, about 30 buffaloes were synchronized and the conception rate was low (26%). The following year, podometers were used, and a conception rate of 50% was obtained.

In the future, as far as bulls of high genetic merit will be available, AI will be performed on the best 20-30% buffaloes, during all year.

Seven super-ovulations on 5 buffaloes were performed, recovering 4.83 embryos per buffalo (min=0, max=17). Five embryos were transplanted into recipients but no calf was born yet. We plan to transfer the remaining 18 embryos next Winter into older buffaloes.

I would like to thank all members of the cooperative farm who have always been trustful in all innovations implemented through the collaboration with the Livestock Division of the University of Naples, of which I also am part. A special thank is to prof. Luigi Zicarelli, who has followed with enthousiasm the growth of the farm, from the project to the production stage. His precious advise made our farm to become, in few years, one of the most productive farms in Italy. Finally, I would like to remind to everybody dr. Stefano Squadrilli, who had been the “pulling force” in the establishment of the cooperative farm, and who died at the age of 30 leaving a void among all of us.