History:

The Cuban bubaline herd is characterized by an indiscriminate mixture of the River subspecies, represented by the Buffalypso and Mediterranean breeds and the Marsh subspecies, with the Carabaos. The results of the pure Buffalypso animals cover the years from 1983 to 1992 and their scientific publications are very scarce.

Objective.

To report on the reproductive, productive and fattening behavior of Buffalypso in Cuba. Methods: Three databases were used: one with reproductive information of 625 buffaloes and 2222 births to determine age (EINC) and weight at incorporation (PINC) at reproduction, age at first calving (EPP9), calving interval (IPP) and seasonality of calving, the second contained milk production data of 826 lactations from 323 buffaloes, to establish production in the following traits: milk in 244 (L244), milk in 305 (L305) and total milk (LTOT), lactation duration (DLAC), fat in 305 days (G305) and total fat (GTOT), the last base was conformed with the weighing of 43 males in a stall fattening in the Livestock Company Los Naranjos, to know the average daily gain (GMD) and the weights at entry and end. The data were processed using the GLM, Freq and Corr procedures of SAS (1995).

Results:

EINC was 20.8±1.8 months, PINC 369.2±5.7 kg; EPP 37 months and IPP 401.9±9.4 months, 65.7% of calvings were concentrated from July to October. Average milk production was 742.5±19.9 kg in 202.1±8.9 months. G305 was 5.9%; 6.1% and 5.8%, while GTOT presented values of 5.1%; 6.9% and 5.1% for buffaloes of Panamanian, Trinidadian and Cuban origin respectively.

Conclusions:

Buffalypso manifested very good behavior during the first years of breeding, although it was affected by herd growth, decreased food supply and low selection index, aspects that should be taken into consideration together with the non-genetic factors that affect them, in herd management planning.