Their meat is quite tasty if properly prepared.

No it is going to be a Christmas present for my sister!

She has worked in Egypt a number of times and has an affection for gamoosas (spelling?). She said when she had the meat it was rich, beefy but stringy and tough since they get a full work life out of them before they butcher them.

Christmas present!

But maybe that's just as well. The cats take up too much room in my bed as it is.

I don't think they make gift bags that big.

I think cheese can be made of the milk, iirc

she is a big cow and if she is bred we will be able to milk her. they don't cross with domestic cattle but she has been with a bull so we shall see.

I think they were raised down around Sonoita about 50 miles from me so they must be used to this kind of country.

sister and her family. I will do it the first of next month when I have the $75. I looked into getting goats instead but I like the idea of a few families getting 1000 eggs a year. They can eat them or sell them. Plus the person Feed The Children buys the chickens from a local farmer in africa too. My mom and grandmother grew up on farms. They are both gone now so chickens at Christmas is as close as I get to my heritage these days.

I didn't want to keep clicking and end up buying another this week.

though when we fed them milk. Those little suckers would knock you down to get at the milk. Cows you could calmly talk to and they'd respond. The farmer told us there was a bull running free on the back acres and it kept my cousin and I from exploring beyond the out buildings. I thought at the time he might be spinning a yarn to keep us guests safely out of trouble and close by. Do farmers regularly let their one bull on a 20 cow dairy farm roam free? My mom's farm didn't have a bull. They only had a few cows.

I have never been around them. beef range bulls tend to be calmer and tamer than the cows (again probably mostly management) but one should be cautious around any large male animal - well any large animal at all! the friendly ones can be just as dangerous as the crazy ones. mental state doesn't much matter if you get knocked down and stepped on! LOL

yeah boisterous calves can knock you down like big dogs running around.

unpasteurized milk - yum. But they also had a pool. Great times.

It was kept in a pen.

It was mad and scary.

This was 40 years ago.

she already has a black cow named Wahida.

Will feral water buffaloes wipe out feral hogs?

From reading I guess they use their horns to make wallows in the mud - could be somewhat destructive in places I imagine. No hogs where I am other than our little native javalinas.

I’m assuming they’re not “Cape Buffalo”.

you are dealing with 1400 lbs!)

no not cape buffalo - those are really dangerous. water buffalo have been domesticated even longer than regular cattle - 4 to 5000 years.

Here is the story. Thursdays are sale day at our local auction barn. They have modernized enough that they also stream the sale on line through a third party site. My connection for that isn't very good (especially since they "upgraded" the feed) but I like to try to watch at least when we ship something. I had a cow and 6 steers going through this week so before I ran to Tucson for my twice weekly winter swim, I watched to see what was happening. All the odd things like goats and whatever go through first. Well this week there were some water buffaloes! And a couple were pretty cheap so I said fuck it I'm getting something and tried to bid, but the stupid website wouldn't work. Then I tried to call the sale barn but got the office instead of the sale area and the person was too slow to respond and it was all over with.

Yesterday, Friday morning I went in picked up my checks and half-joking whined about missing a chance to bid. I also had an appointment to donate blood there in town so did my banking and headed over to do that. I'm O- so they like me to do power red which takes a little longer. So I'm laying on the gurney/bed thing all hooked up to the machine spazzing out because I can't roll the rubber ball at the same time I'm texting my sister. I get two attempted calls from a number I don't recognize so ignore those, then the husband calls. He says the sale barn owner called and wanted me to call him back on his cell phone (the mystery number, oops) I get nervous that my check was wrong or something and I am going to have to straighten some crap out with the bank. I call and he says do you still want one of those water buffaloes? I'm kind of shocked and say maybe, tell me about it. Well, the guy that bought most of them came to pick them up and the sale owner talked him out of one and bought her back. Of course it was more than I was going to bid, nor the one I tried to bid on, but I said you know what? sure I will take her, it is going to be a Christmas present for my sister. LOL So essentially I bought her sight unseen because I didn't know which one it was other than he said her horns were trimmed off and she was big - almost 1400 lbs. Probably about 4 years old. Also he said she was real gentle and you could pet her.

Now the hard part was to call Dusty, the guy that does a lot of stuff for me and ask him to haul her home as our truck just can't handle pulling a trailer anymore (should be spending money on a better haul truck and not water buffaloes but I am a crazy lefty and not a fiscal conservative! ) Forcing real cowboys to participate in dealing with exotic animals can be risky but curiosity got to him and instead of casually doing the haul "probably can get to it Saturday afternoon" he was over there in about an hour and brought her home yesterday. in the rain. LOL

She was a little stirred up but went right to some hay and we had to get out of the rain so we didn't really get to "meet" her until this morning. OMG she is a big fat pig, gentle as a dog. comes right up to you and starts licking your hand. strange animal. very cow-like but with different shapes to parts of her body. the dogs know it is not a cow, they are suspicious and want to bark at her. I had to keep telling them to back off and shut up. we put a black cow and calf in with her for company but they don't seem to want to have much to do with each other. not fighting, but not "herding" together, that is for sure. it will be interesting to see what the horses think when they come in - and other cattle, especially bulls. Since we had a bunch of rain yesterday (YAY!!!) nothing is hanging around the HQ for a couple of days.

I was doing some reading and they are actually more distantly related to cattle than horses and donkeys are to each other. I don't know if she is broke to lead or not, but she will be easy to put a halter or lead rope on, that is for sure. you can walk all around her and pet her or scritch. seems like if she has a calf milking will be possible too. This is going to be interesting. my sister and I talk on the phone all the time and to not be able to tell her about the day yesterday was rough! LOL she is going to be so surprised.

Gentle animals, great draugh animals, we used then to plough the rice paddies of my youth. Save his/her life!

but she is what she is. if she has a calf it will have them.

Get a Flinstones Loyal Order Of Water Buffalo Lodge hat right now.

You can’t have a water buffalo and not join the Order!

PM me and I’ll have one shipped to any address.

You know you have to earn the badges. As an initiate, you start without them.

how long before the secret handshake?

Flashbacks!

Prolific animal in SE Asia.

two kinds, I guess. a river version and a "swamp" version. and again two separate species and they don't interbreed from what I read.