______________________________________598____________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ 1 st . BUFFALO SYMPOSIUM OF AMERICAS CHARACTERIZATION OF BUFFFALO REARING IN THE MESO-REGIONS OF ZONA DA MATA AND THE BELO HORIZONTE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT. – I: CHARACTERIZATION OF PROPERTIES MACHADO, T.M.M. 1 ; MARTINS, R.G. Teacher of the Federal University of Viçosa ABSTRACT The study comprised 69% of the head of buffaloes, which had been indicated by IBGE, in the meso-regions of ZM and MBH. Bovine rearing is carried out in 82% of the properties. In 59% of these properties, the bovine herd is larger than the buffalo herd. On these farms, equine, ovine and swine are also reared. Some of the producers develop other activity different from the husbandry. The average size of the farms is 461 hectares (ha) and the buffaloes occupy 78% of the area, except for two large farms of an average size of 308 ha. The most common type of pastures are the “Brachiarão” (Brachiaria brizantha) and the “Brachiarias” (Brachiaria decumbens or B. humidicola). The elephant grass accounts for 64% of the farm area and the sugarcane for 53% of the farm. Fences and facilities are often inappropriate for raising buffaloes. Key words: buffalo, Brachiaria brizantha, decumbens, humidicola, properties INTRODUCTION The buffaloes were first brought to Brazil, to the northern region, in 1890. Since then raising buffaloes has become more and more an important activity in Brazilian farming. The study of the conditions of raising buffaloes in Brazil has therefore been overlooked. In the state of São Paulo and in the Ribeira Valley in São Paulo (VR of SP), two surveys were carried out (1,5). In the state of Minas Gerais, there is a study on the meso-region of Triângulo Mineiro/Alto Paranaíba (6). In the meso-region of Zona da Mata and Belo Horizonte Metropolitan district like in most parts of the country, buffaloes have been objects of study as animals for experiment. The Brazilian buffalo population, in 1994, was distributed as follows: 6,6% was in the Southeast Region, out of this amount 33,3% was in Minas Gerais (1,2). There were 34.575 head of buffaloes in Minas Gerais which were distributed in the following meso-regions: Northwest of Minas (4,1%), North of Minas (2,0%), Jequitinhonha (10,5%), Valley of Mucuri (2,5%), Triângulo Mineiro/Alto Paranaíba (42,5%), Central region of Minas (0,8%), Valley of Doce River (7,3%), West of Minas (3,4%), South/Southeast (19,9%), Belo Horizonte Metropolitan district (6,4%) and Zona da Mata (0,6%). The objective of this survey was to know more about the buffalo herd in the meso-regions of Zona da Mata (ZM) and BH Metropolitan district (MBH) and to encourage further studies on the bubalus species. MATERIAL AND METHODS The properties, which were visited, were identified by the Departamento de Zootecnia da Universidade Federal de Viçosa (Zootechny Department of Federal University of Viçosa) along with the Associação Brasileira de Criadores de Búfalos - ABCB (Brazilian Association of Buffalo Breeders), the Empresa de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural do Estado de Minas Gerais – EMATER (Agency for Technical Assistance and Rural Assessment of the State of Minas Gerais), the offices of Instituto Mineiro de Agropecuária - IMA (Farming Institute of Minas Gerais) and the buffalo breeders themselves. An interview was scheduled to visit the properties where there were more than 15 head of buffaloes. The purpose of this interview was to assess the data on these properties. The collected results were tabulated, and for the group of properties, the means and frequencies were calculated for the several considered parameters.