COMPREHENSIVE REPORT ON BUFFALO AND CATTLE IN THAILAND

In a developing country such as Thailand, the livestock sector is undergoing highly dynamic
changes. This has resulted from rapidly increasing demand for meat and meat products. The changes in
the demand for livestock products have been driven by income growth, urbanization, and educational
background. Demand for livestock products in the future could be heavily moderated by socio-economic
factors such as human health concerns and changing socio-cultural values. The livestock system in
Thailand has been associated with scientific and technological developments and increases in efficiency
and environmental sustainability.

The North-east of Thailand is an area of traditional beef cattle farming. This region has undergone
rapid physical, social and economic change in the past decade. Agricultural growth has been maintained
by increasing the production of rice and cassava, and more rapid growth in beef production. The Central
region is the most fertile, and largely comprises irrigated river flats where rice and other crops are grown
on the vast, wet alluvial plains around the Chao Phraya River. The Office of Agricultural Economics
annually conducts surveys of major crops including rice from 2017 through 2018. Livestock and poultry
production is currently of two major types: large commercial farms and backyard non-commercial farms.
The predominant types of livestock are beef cattle, buffalo, swine, chicken, and dairy cows. The South is
predominantly a lowland rubber, coconut, and palm-growing region. This area has the majority of the
Muslim population in Thailand and the highest concentration of small ruminants such as sheep and
goats.

In Thailand, chicken, duck, and swine are three mains important animals that contribute more
than 80% of livestock and poultry production income. This means that the consumption of chickens,
ducks, and pork is popular among the majority of Thais. This is due to most of them are Buddhists and
some of them do not want to consume large ruminants. Unlike goat and sheep, meat from these small
ruminants is not popular among Thai consumers because goat and sheep meats are not commonly part
of the originally Thai meal (Wattanachant, 2008).

Based on the previous information, the total number of chickens, ducks, and swine raised is
higher and had more economic contribution to the Thai livestock industry than the ruminants. However,
from 2014 to 2018, the ruminant population increased by 30% while the non-ruminant had an
approximately 18.3% increase. The increasing number of ruminants, particularly, goat, cattle, and
buffalo reflect the raising in the demand from domestic and neighboring countries (China, Laos, and
Vietnam) markets (Nimsai et al., 2015), but chicken and pork are the two main exported products from
Thailand (Department of Livestock Development, 2019). This is because chicken and swine production
is run by large companies. Nevertheless, the demand for animal protein for Thai consumers trends to
increase due to the growth of urbanization.

An average of 2,163 cattle and 1,854 swamp buffaloes were brought to market each week, of
which 1,028 cattle and 1,164 swamp buffaloes were sold. Average prices for cattle and buffaloes at
these local markets were 4,648 and 5,444 baht per animal, respectively. Local dealers earned from 100
to 1,000 baht profit on each animal sold. The market owners, most of whom were villagers, collected a
fee of 5 to 10 baht per transaction. Although these local markets did not trade in farm animals other than
cattle and buffaloes, they offered various other merchandise such as used bicycles and motorcycles,
household goods, agricultural utensils, food ingredients, clothes, etc. The total cash flow in a local
market was substantial, occasionally reaching 6 million baht within half a day (early morning to noon),
the normal duration of the local market. The total cash flow in the 12 local markets may reach 90 to
1,000 million baht annually, representing a significant amount of money circulating in the rural areas.
(Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council, 2019).
 Due to changes of the agricultural production systems in Thailand towards more intensive farms,
raising livestock for purposes such as draught power, manure production, inheritance and livestock
farming as a traditional activity is becoming of less interest. As stated by Simaraks et al. (2003), the role
livestock played as savings and in bartering systems in Northeast Thailand has been mostly replaced by
a buy-and-sale system, and other roles related to inheritance, rituals etc. have declined dramatically and
been replaced mainly by consumer goods. Regardless of these other opportunities, the present study
indicated that keeping livestock as savings is still common for small-, medium-, as well as large-scale
farmers. In order to improve farmers’ livelihoods and develop sustainable farming systems in Northeast
Thailand, the changing economic circumstances of cattle and especially buffalo production should
receive more attention of researchers, governmental institutions and stakeholders.

CATTLE PRODUCTION

Breed Development

Cow-calf operations raise their stock primarily on pasture and other forms of roughage than grain-
based concentrate feeds. Cattle manure is used to maintain soil fertility in rice production. Cow-calf
producers in agricultural areas commonly possess 2 to 10 cows which are fed in a cut-and-carry system
or grazed on communal lands and supplemented with a small amount of concentrate feed.

The average income from cattle can be divided into two sections: the 1 to 1.5-year-old calf, and male
cattle reared for 3 to 4 years. Cows in cow-calf systems have their first calf at around 30 to 40 months of
age on average. The price of cattle depends on the breed and live weight. Reproduction is the most
important factor in determining profitability in a cow-calf system. To maintain a calving interval of 365
days, a cow must rebreed within 80 to 85 days after calving.

Stocker systems for steers and yearling bulls use animals averaging between about 180 (weaned
calves) and 350 kg live weight and are common practice in beef production in the Northern region of
Thailand. The stocker system supplies cattle for finishing. Ranchers often graze their cattle on fallow
land, crop fields after harvesting, and on natural communal land. In the rainy season, natural grasses
grow well and can provide enough feed for cattle without the need for supplementation. Grazing lands
are mainly (80%) communal lands, the remainder being the farmer's land or roadsides. In some cases,
the cattle are grazed on mountains, especially during the rainy season. In the Southern areas, the cattle
graze in rubber and palm oil plantations. In the dry season, low humidity inhibits the growth of natural
forage plants leading to a severe shortage of feed resources. During this season, supplements of rice
straw and agricultural by-products such as pineapple by-products, palm kernel, and cassava pulp are of
major importance. Cattle may graze with no supplementation; however, supplementation is required to
support the growth of muscle and fat for higher-yielding animals. Consequently, crop residues, corn
husks, rice bran, and brewers grains play an important role in these systems. Napier grass is the fodder
crop of choice and is widely grown in less productive areas for higher productivity as feed for cattle.

Cattle in finishing systems are provided with a specific fattening feeding regime in an intensive
system to obtain a specific market weight for sale. The production cycle from birth to market for finished
cattle averages 3 years. The number of cattle per feedlot ranges from 10 to 600 head.

Cattle are fed high-energy concentrates and rice straw or roughage. Normally they are fed a
ration with a 70:30 concentrate to roughage ratio for 8 to 12 months to reach 550 to 600 kg body weight.
The main feeds consist of carbonaceous concentrate which accounts for between 60% to 80% of
production costs depending on factors including season, farm location, and intensiveness of production.
Total mixed rations are formulated from a mixture of locally available feedstuffs and agricultural by-
products; mostly cassava chips, a by-product from pineapple, rice straw, and dried brewers grains.

Commercial fattening systems that produce prime and high-quality beef have only a 1% market
share. Growing demand for beef from urban inhabitants is providing increasing opportunities for high-
quality beef from fattening systems and markets for cattle. Fattening cattle is a highly profitable venture
with high returns for producers. Hence, Thai ranchers are currently developing their agribusiness
potential mostly using cattle fattening operations.

Government Policies to Support the Industry

The Department of Livestock Development offers loans of about $7,000 with no repayments for
three years, and Achmad et al. suggested the need for government intervention to develop and expand
beef cattle programs through incentives and policy support. There is little incentive for the development
of commercial beef farms because of a scarcity of land and the high levels of investment required.

Buffalo Production

In Thailand, there are more work buffaloes than cattle, and the demand for work buffaloes has
been increasing. This is evident from the fact that the price of work buffaloes had doubled or tripled in
recent years. At the same time, during the last decade, the demand for beef including buffalo meat had
been increasing in many countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.

The use of buffaloes as draft animals, especially in rainfed agricultural areas in Asia, will continue
despite increasing farm mechanization in irrigated areas, For the long-run, fuel prices will continue to be
high due to increasing world demand and limited energy resources. Small farmers will have to depend
more and more on animal draft power or other cheaper source of power.

This indicates the economic importance of the swamp buffaloes in beef production, not only for
the Asian region but also for other regions as well. Hence, breeding improvement of the swamp
buffaloes for meat production deserves high priority. Raising buffaloes for milk has been traditional in
many countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Egypt, etc. But, the swamp buffaloes
have not traditionally been used for milk production due to various reasons.

First, they are not very good milk producers; second, the swamp buffaloes exist mainly in the
regions where the people are not real milk consumers. However, recently some countries such as
China, Philippines, and Thailand show their interest in improving these animals for milk, in addition to
meat and draft, because a large number of these buffaloes already exist in these countries. Since these
animals have already been raised for a draft by rural farmers, improving animal milking ability would
improve the nutrition and health of rural people, because milk will be available at the farm household
level. Besides, many countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand
produce only 5% of the milk they consume, and the need to increase milk production in each country
certainly receives high economic importance.

Breeding Development

From the socio-economic standpoints of the existing agricultural production systems in Asia, the
breeding goal for the improvement of buffalo on small farms should be dual-purpose ones, either for
draft-and-beef or for draft-and-milk, depending on the farmer's needs. A breeding improvement aimed
purely at draft ability might not yield maximum benefits to the farmers (Chantalakhana. 1985).

When a dual-purpose goal is considered in the genetic improvement of buffalo, then the
relationships between draft traits with beef or milk characteristics have to be taken into consideration to
ensure maximum overall breeding improvement. At the same time, as far as farmers are concerned, it is
very important to know whether the resulting improved animals were suitable and acceptable under
village small farm conditions. This calls for the research approach of the farming system research.

Although conclusive, information on genetic variation of important traits concerning draft or beef in
the indigenous buffalo is lacking, but available evidence and experiences indicated that within-breed or
within strain selection for draft-and-beef could considerable progress. It is highly recommended that
national breeding herds should be organized to identify and multiply superior genetic stocks.
Performance testing of buffalo bulls under the same specified environmental, feeding, and management
conditions such as that going on in Thailand (Chantalakhana, 1983) should be implemented in
whichever country is possible.

Due to the lack of a national buffalo breeding improvement program and the apparent decline in
genetic quality of the Thai swamp buffalo. The Department of Livestock Development (DLD),
Kasetsart University, Khon Kaen University and Rocky Feller Foundation signed a memorandum of
agreement to conduct a joint research program for improvement of a swamp buffalo named “The
National Buffalo Research and Development Center Project”. The DLD will have a breeding center for
establishing a swamp buffalo nucleus herd at the National Buffalo Breeding Center (NBBC) at the Surin
Livestock Breeding Station.

There have been various activities about buffalo development which have been carried out
both at both a national and international level. These activities include research, education and
training, seminar and workshop for information exchange, the establishment of an information center
called the “International Buffalo Information Center” (IBIC) under IDRC supported and the formation
of the Asian Buffalo Association (ABA). In addition, there were routine extension programs at the farm
level such as the loan the Bull Program, AI Service, Buffalo Health Service, Buffalo Bank and
Buffalo contest and fair.The Performance Testing Program Breeding Improvement has been
established in 1979, through the “performance testing program” a closed nucleus breeding herd was
kept at Surin Livestock Breeding Station and a central testing station was located at
Lamphayaklang Breeding Station. The breeding objective established in 1981 was to increase the
growth rate and then to increase the mature size of buffalo. The breeding herd bulls and cows
have been selected through the performance-testing program with close association of improving
management, nutrition and health programs. This center has capacity to run 300 breeding cows per
year.

The performance-testing program has a 1-year testing period for each lot. There are 3 lots a year
of weaned calves to be selected for this testing and each lot consists of 60 –70 weaned calves. The
candidate animals were selected by ranking their 240 days weaning weight with good general
appearance. At the end of the test period, animals were ranked for average daily gain (ADG) during
the test, 2 year adjusted weigh wither height and general appearance. The higher ranked animals
were selected and an independent culling level was also based on ADG where the selected male
and female should be above 400 and 350 gm/head/day respectively. The testing procedures have been
planned so that they apply to the smallholder by having a similar feeding regime.

Feeding System

The pastures were provided at 1 acre per head and each lot of candidate animals was managed
in the same pasture and management condition. The concentrated feed supplied to animals was at
the rate of 1% of body weight each day. The concentrate feed had 12% protein and 75% TDN. The top
bulls were assigned for collecting semen (distributed to the the whole country) and for replacement
at the NBBC, the rest were used in farmer’s herds. The females that passed the test were used for
replacement at the NBBC.

Government Policies to Support the Industry

There were various lessons to be learned from government policies, which have changed
focus from subsistence farming systems to industrialized systems. The focus has been toward
introducing new technology for the development to rapidly improve socioeconomic levels and attitude
of the farmers to the technology. Combined with the Green Revolution, agricultural patterns have
dramatically changed and significantly contributed to an increased productivity through the transfer
of high yielding plant varieties and livestock breeds to the farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative has 10 long-term plan which are: (1) promoting
farmers with easy access to information, (2) increasing the potential of producing agricultural products
sufficient for domestic consumption, (3) discover and develop new innovations and technologies for
agriculture, (4) solve the debt problems of farmers, (5) updated exiting regulations, (6) focus on large
livestock production scale and more attention for healthy food, (7) increase the value of Thai agricultural
products, (8) adjust production in line with climate change, (9) increase research and innovation in
agriculture, and (10) integrate all ministries and experts to cover all aspects related to agriculture
(Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative, 2019). This policy was strongly announced by the government,
all agricultural sectors, including livestock and poultry, have to adjust themselves to the new direction.
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