Nutritious milk and benefits for nature: a farmer takes care of a herd of buffaloes in Transcarpathia (photo)

In Transcarpathia, in the village of Bushtyno, a farmer Vladislav Sabadosh holds 11 buffaloes and says that the animals not only provide humans with nutritious milk but also help to protect nature, wrote “Agro-Center”.

The man started to work with buffaloes back in 2010 when he bought his first animal. His family got tired of buying milk and decided to get a cow and a buffalo. His first buffalo farmer got from a German ecologist Michel Jacobi, who is known for his work in order to protect the population of Transcarpathian buffaloes.

“Buffalo is not just milk, sour cream, meat, and skin but also ecology. Just look at this field! It’s so clean and orderly with no bushes or shrubs”,

says Vladislav.

To make sure that buffaloes won’t be approached by cows and other guests, the pasture is equipped with a special fence under voltage. Animals in the pasture have no restrictions. They spend all the time outdoors if weather conditions are suitable. When the weather is bad or cold they stay in a barn.

“It is easier for buffaloes and cows to tolerate lower temperatures rather than heat. They don’t feel the temperature when it’s up to 10 degrees below zero but only if they are dry. In the past, people made bags for salt from buffalo’s thick skin. By the way, Carpathian buffaloes are actually adapted Indian buffaloes that have lived in the Carpathians for thousands of years. They have long been used as a drag force. Buffaloes are more powerful than horses. Nowadays, in Ukraine, they are about two hundred buffaloes,”

says the farmer.

The farmer doesn’t milk female buffaloes as the calves need it. Buffaloes are prideful but mostly calm animals. Sometimes they even let me pat them. They can recognize their owner by smell. One doesn’t need to call the animals, they obediently approach the farmer on their own.

“There’s matriarchy among buffaloes: where a mother goes – everyone goes, no one disagrees,”

said the farmer.

It is easy to take care of buffaloes. They eat everything cows do – hay, corn, etc. Since they have better immunity than other animals, infectious diseases are not really dangerous for them.

The farmer said that his business doesn’t give income yet. There’s an advantage – each year he receives a dotation. These funds allow the man to buy fodder for the winter. However, there is not enough money to expand the herd or hire more workers.

“State support for farmers should definitely be bigger,”

noted Vladislav Sabadosh.