The buffalo is a native animal of Iran and there were 500,000 buffaloes in Iran that over 80 per cent of its population concentrated in the north and north- west (Azerbaijan province) and 18 per cent in the south (Khuzestan province) of the country. Buffaloes reread in rural condition as multi purpose animals in Khuzestan. For mating, farmer use owns herd sire also artificial insemination is limited in the rural condition that may be inbred animals so affect the production performance. The aim of this investigation was estimate the inbreeding coefficient and its affect on some production performance. Data of 200 herds were used from the record sheets of herds under recording program of Animal Breeding Center during period 1990 to 2002 in the Khuzestan province. These results showed mostly herds only one sir and rarely two sires have been used. Inbreeding coefficient was 25 percent in some progeny and high-inbred buffaloes had a low performance. According to results of this study it could be concluded that farmers to avoid inbreeding should use other herd sire and artificial insemination also practical recording scheme and genetically selection to genetic improvement should be included in buffaloes of Iran

Reproduction efficiency is one of the most important factors for productivity and profitably of dairy animals. Late or delayed oestrus in buffalo heifers is one of the major factors limiting its overall productive and reproductive performance. Feeding and general management have been reported to improve reproduction efficiency of buffaloes. Reproduction is partly affected by nutrition supplementation. Thus the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of supplemented ration on some reproductive traits in Azeri buffaloes. One hundred and twenty female buffalo calves with 8 months age were randomly divided into four groups (30 calves in each group). Calves received I) traditional ration (TR) II) TR plus 0.5 kg concentrate III) TR plus 1 kg concentrate IV) TR plus 1.5 kg concentrates till the age at first estrous. There was no difference between initial weights of calves before the treatments. The reproductive traits considered were age at first oestrus, weight at first oestrus, number of oestruses before gestation, age at gestation, age at calving. Although there were no significant differences between the all studied traits among treatments, the supplementation in Group 4 improved the traits somehow; in particular, treatment 4 decreased by 70 days the age at calving compared to treatment 1. This indicates that the W. Azerbaijan buffaloes suffer a nutritional deficiency in their lifetime and that quality /quantity supplementation of ration can improve their reproductive performance

Iran has 500thousand heads buffalo that 80percent of them distributed in North and North West of Iran and they reared as multi purpose animals providing milk and meat. Farmer believe that buffalo milk had the best quality but because of huge and large head and skin buffaloes carcass isn’t suitable that governmental programmer pay a low facilities to buffalo fattener in comparison the cattle fattener thus the objective of this investigation was to the Comparison carcass traits of buffalo, native and Native cows* Holstein (NH) male calves that mostly fattened in this region. Eighty head claves (six heads of each treat) with average 160 kg body weight (BW) were fattened till the 300 kg. Ration and other environmental factors were the same. Three heads of each group’s according Iranian Standards slaughtered at abattoir. The slaughter weight, hot carcass weight, and the individual weights of the different slaughter by-products and organs were measured. The carcasses were chilled at 5o C for 24 h. One side of each carcass was cutting into wholesales cuts. Traits included Hot and cold carcass weight, bone, internal fat, meat, cut ability fat, dressing percent, wholesales cuts weight and percent. Wholesales cuts include neck, shoulder, loin, rib and flank and leg weight and percent. The results showed that there were not significant differences between hot and cold carcass weigh, meat, bone and cut ability fat percent. There were significant differences on internal fat, dressing percent and leg (P<0.05). The lowest and highest values for internal fat were observed buffalo and native carcass, respectively. In conclusion because of low internal fat deposition and high valuable wholesales cuts percent may buffalo carcass composition had a better quality in comparison cattle and fattening of buffalo is economically

In order to investigate the effect of different levels of NDF on chewing behavior and their relationship with ruminal acidity, 3 ruminally fistulated buffalo steers (average BW = 389.6 ±7.5 Kg) were allotted in a change over design in Agriculture and Natural Resource center of Uremia city of Iran. Two diets with 2 levels of NDF were used as treatments. First and second diets had 52 and 47 % of NDF, respectively. The experiment had two periods and each period’s take 15d for adaptation, 7d for sample collection and determination of nutrient digestibility and for determination of passage rate, 2d for measuring ruminal pH, and 3d for measuring chewing activity. Using Penn Stat Particle Separator (PSPS), distribution, geometric mean, its standard deviation and physically effective factor (pef) of diets were determined. Animals fed ad libitum at 09:00a.m and 21:00p.m. The time that spent for eating and rumination were optically recorded in 24h with 5 minutes intervals and total chewing activity calculated from sum of eating and rumination time. There were no significant differences between chemical composition, particles distribution, geometric mean, its standard deviation and physically effective factor (pef) of diets, dry matter intake (kg/d) and nutrients intake (NDF, ADF, NFC and crude protein) and their digestibility, but digestibility ADF, NDF and NFC decreased as content of fiber increased(P<0.05). Increasing NFC reduced ruminal pH at 0.5, 1.0, 4.5, 6.0 9.0 and 10.0 h post feeding (P<0.05). In addition, there were no significant differences on eating time, rumination time and total chewing activity between diets, but increased as NDF intake and peNDF>1.18 increased (P<0.05). Also, rumination time and total chewing activity over night decreased as NDF intake and peNDF>1.18 increased (P<0.05)

For economically fattening we should know the capacity of each species thus, the objective of this investigation was the Comparison buffalo, native and HN male calves fattening performance. Eighteen claves (six animals for each group) with an average body weight (BW) of 160 kg were fattened till 300 kg. Ration and other rearing conditions were the same. Animals were fed ad libitum. Feeds remaining were weighted every morning. Animals weighted monthly till the average of group reach to 300kg. Results showed that the average daily gain (ADG) of native, buffalo and HN calves in overall period were 641, 777 and 912 gr/day respectively and there was not significantly difference between them. The average feed consumption of native, buffalo and HN calves in overall period were 5.6, 5.3 and 6.3kg DM/day respectively and the differences were significant (p<0.01). The fed consumption ratio (FCR) of native, buffalo and HN calves in overall period was 8.3, 7.2 and 6.9 and this difference was not significant. The performances of buffalo calves were intermediate between those of the Native and HN calves in all traits. In conclusion, because of high potential in conversion of roughage, buffalo calves can be competition with other species and fattening of them may be economically