Dairy buffalo production has been a tradition in parts of the world like the Caucasian countries, Asia and Egypt, where fresh buffalo milk, dahi (cultured sour milk), ghee (butter oil) and yoghurt are popular. In Italy the dairy buffalo industry is flourishing thanks to the popularity of buffalo mozzarella cheese. Because of the market for mozzarella, buffalo farming is a profitable enterprise and is carried out in an organised manner with modern equipment. In South American countries like Brazil and Argentina, buffalo are reared for both milk and meat. In recent years, buffalo milk and milk products, especially mozzarella cheese, have become immensely popular and dairy buffalo production has found its way into non-traditional areas with the number of buffalo farms mushrooming even in the UK and USA (Palmer, 2005).

       In India as well as Pakistan, in the vicinity of all the major cities like Mumbai, Calcutta, and Karachi, one can find a large number of buffalo farms of varying herd sizes. In Mumbai alone, there are more than 200000 buffalo in downtown districts and probably another 100000 in suburban areas. Some of these farms have herd sizes of more than 1000 buffalo, and on average these herds have more than 100 buffalo (Vidya, 2004). Large-scale dairy buffalo production is a greater reality in India and Pakistan than anywhere else in the world – even though it represents less than two percent of the buffalo farms in those two countries.

source DeLaval Booklet on Efficient Dairy Production System