Water (& River) Buffaloes in Colder Climates

[Simeon]

Wondering about the labour-intensiveness of rice agriculture especially in the colder regions like Central China, Japan, and Italy, I have been left to wonder whether a breed of water buffaloes that can withstand colder temperatures is plausible at all.

And in the case that it can be, I do also wonder whether this can contribute to the case of land enclosure, or instead, lead to the suppression of the use of the draft animal and the acreage system associated with it in favour of kicking the issue of land down the road in order to placate the peasantry and prevent them from being rendered landless.

 

[Lalli]

Probably there should be some evolutionary POD. Perhaps some relative of bison could evolve something like cold weather version of water buffalo. Bovines seems being anyway being warm weather animals so probably only possible is something from lineage of bison.

 

[Simeon]

Probably there should be some evolutionary POD. Perhaps some relative of bison could evolve something like cold weather version of water buffalo. Bovines seems being anyway being warm weather animals so probably only possible is something from lineage of bison.

That said — would River Buffalos acclimated to the climate of the Balkans as far north as Romania have made a difference, then?

 

[Arkenfolm]

Romanian buffalo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Italian Mediterranean buffalo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There are other populations in the Balkans that seem to be centuries old. The lack of spread might be more cultural than anything. Perhaps they were historically too associated with "inferior" people (for Europeans this would be Muslims and later non-whites in general, for Japanese this would be Ryukyuans, etc.) to effectively spread far. From the perspective of a peasant, why invest the time and skill learning how to manage a very strange-looking cow when you already have enough cattle to deal with?

 

[Pesterfield]

bovines seems being anyway being warm weather animals

Cattle breeds have been bred for Scotland and some breeds live on the Great Plains free range even in winter.

Yaks are also a cold weather plowing option, whenever China expands enough to reach where they're used.

 

[Simeon]

There are other populations in the Balkans that seem to be centuries old. The lack of spread might be more cultural than anything. Perhaps they were historically too associated with "inferior" people (for Europeans this would be Muslims and later non-whites in general, for Japanese this would be Ryukyuans, etc.) to effectively spread far. From the perspective of a peasant, why invest the time and skill learning how to manage a very strange-looking cow when you already have enough cattle to deal with?

Cattle breeds have been bred for Scotland and some breeds live on the Great Plains free range even in winter.

Yaks are also a cold weather plowing option, whenever China expands enough to reach where they're used.

Well, the question also is: can such breeds be also used in rice paddies at the same scale that their more southerly counterparts have already done?

 

[Quinkana]

Tbf I think half the question is why the Japanese and Chinese didn't use water buffalo in the north at all. Maybe swamp buffalo just weren't able to expand south since they're very different from river buffalo because we know they are quite different from each other. Maybe if the Japanese got some river buffalo from India they'd be able to use them...

It may just be that Japanese don't use water buffalo because of cultural reasons because Romania is defo colder than Japan. But it is very possible that Japan with a more open policy gets water bufflfoes of both types into Japan to breed a breed that's suited for Japan. It may just be that cows are better tho, as most peasants don't produce as much rice as Southern China which may negate the advantages water buffalo bring unless they're used in specific environments where mass growing of rice is possible. Most Japanese peasants ate millet after all...