A Murrah buffalo not showing heat at 75 days: injection first, or ration first?
A dairy farmer in Rohtak keeps 12 Murrah buffaloes. Buffalo number 7, in her third parity, calved 75 days ago and gives 5.5 litres a day against a herd average of 8 litres. Her body condition score is 2.5 on a 5-point scale, and she has shown no standing heat since calving, although the farmer recalls clear mucus about three weeks ago. The daily ration is 6 kg wheat straw, 3 kg green fodder and 2.5 kg of a concentrate mix of mustard cake, wheat bran and maize, with no mineral mixture and only occasional salt. Drinking water comes from a hand pump and is not measured. The local AI technician has offered a prostaglandin injection for ₹600 to "bring her into heat", and the farmer wants it done because a similar injection worked on another animal last year. Milk sells at ₹38 per litre.
1. Should the prostaglandin injection be given now? What would you examine first?
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Not blindly, and not yet as a first step. Prostaglandin F2α (or its analogues) only works when a functional corpus luteum is present on the ovary - it regresses the CL and the animal comes into heat two to three days later. In a buffalo whose ovaries are inactive, which is the common picture with poor body condition after calving, the injection does nothing except cost money and give false reassurance.
Examine and classify first:
- Rectal palpation or ultrasound by a veterinarian to record ovarian status - inactive/smooth ovaries, a palpable CL, or a cyst - and to check the uterus for the discharge noted three weeks ago.
- If a CL is present, prostaglandin is justified. If the ovaries are inactive, the answer is energy balance, minerals and time, possibly with a vet-supervised hormonal protocol.
- Check body condition score, weight, feed intake, mineral supplementation, deworming history, lameness and teeth.
- Check heat detection: with no teaser bull and no fixed observation, a true ovulation can be missed - the mucus three weeks ago may have been a silent heat.
Verdict: spend the ₹600 on a veterinary examination instead of an injection. Diagnosis before hormone.
2. Critique the ration and estimate what she is short of; explain how feeding and the calving-to-first-heat interval are connected.
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What the ration supplies: 6 kg wheat straw is mostly fibre with very low protein and energy; 3 kg green fodder is far below the 20–25 kg normally needed for a milking buffalo; 2.5 kg concentrate supports perhaps 2–3 litres of milk, not 5.5. There is no mineral mixture, so calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper and cobalt are likely short - and the area's soils and fodders are not reliable sources.
A more realistic daily ration for her:
- Green fodder raised to 20–25 kg (berseem, lucerne or maize silage), replacing part of the straw.
- Concentrate increased gradually to about 5 kg, roughly 1 kg for maintenance plus 0.4–0.5 kg per litre of milk, split into two feeds.
- 50–100 g of a standard or area-specific mineral mixture and 30–40 g of common salt daily.
- Clean drinking water available at all times - a milking buffalo may drink 60–100 litres a day, and the hand pump is not being measured.
- Gradual change over 7–10 days to avoid digestive upset.
The link: after calving, a buffalo in negative energy balance mobilises body reserves, and the reproductive axis stays suppressed until the deficit closes - hence a BCS of 2.5 and no heat. Correcting energy and minerals is the treatment; restoring body condition should bring her back into cycle within a few weeks. The response should be judged by rising milk yield and monthly BCS, not by injecting and hoping.
3. What does the delay cost the farmer, and what records and routines should be set up?
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Cost of delay: her maintenance feed is roughly ₹100–120 per day (straw, green, concentrate). Sixty extra days open is about ₹6,000–7,000 of feed for an animal producing nothing extra, before counting the lost calf and the extended dry period. The ₹600 injection is trivial by comparison - which is exactly why it should only be spent after a diagnosis, not instead of one. Against that, one extra litre per day at ₹38 is about ₹1,140 a month, so ration correction pays for itself quickly if yield also responds.
Records to keep:
- Daily milk yield per animal and feed offered.
- Heat dates and any mucus/discharge, from twice-daily observation of 20–30 minutes with a teaser.
- Service and pregnancy-check dates, so a 12–13 month calving interval can be targeted and the dry period planned.
- Monthly body condition score and the veterinarian's ovarian findings.
Routines: deworming and vaccination as per the local schedule, mineral mixture daily without gaps, and a written rule that no hormone is given without a recorded ovarian diagnosis. Avoid oxytocin for milk let-down - it masks poor milking routine and is a welfare and residue risk.