The Thai swamp buffalo is called “Ai Tui” in the Thai language which means, “it is an honest royal worker” that is very important for Thai farmer life. The buffalo was considered a royal worker because no comparable animals or machines could do the work as well as the buffalo. Because it has big feet and is good at pulling with slow walking steps, Thai farmers use them to pull rice-digging instruments for preparing the land to grow rice. The buffalo was also used as transportation animal (horses are rarely used in Thailand up to today). Because of its long terrible looking horn that sometimes becomes as long as 3 meters across both horns, the buffalo was also used in war.
However, most of today’s buffalo have short horns.
The Thai swamp buffalo can be used to work up to 14 years old without problems. That is very long royal worker life compared to other animals. On average, the buffalo works 5 hours a day. In one year a buffalo can help to grow 9.7 to 13.4 Rai of rice (1 Rai in Thai is equivalent to 1600 m.)
The buffalo is used 122 days a year. In the past, most Thai farmers grew only one rice crop in a year. Today in the machine era, we can have 3 rice seasons in Thailand each year. After they are 14 years old the “royal worker” are sent to the slaughterhouse. A buffalo carcass will contain 40.8 to 46.4% based on live weight. Buffalo carcass quality is inferior compared to cattle i.e. less in lean cut percentage, less in dressing percentage, higher in fat percentage and higher in bone percentage.
This may be the reason why farmers today prefer to raise beef cattle.
Supat FAARUNGSANG
Department of Animal Science, Kasetsart University, Thailand
