Water Buffalo

Why Water Buffalo?

We always liked the idea of having our own milk and dairy products as well as having a penchant for a good piece of fillet steak.

It had to be a breed of cattle that produced a unique product to make it worth keeping such a small herd.

Although buffalo milk yield is only half that of a dairy cow, the milk has twice the butterfat, is higher in vitamins and protein and is lower in cholesterol than goat’s milk. There are also many claims that it is a healthy alternative to many who have a cow’s milk intolerance and it appears to help considerably with those suffering with a number of medical problems such as eczema, cystic fibrosis, irritable bowl syndrome & psoriasis, to name a few. It also tastes very similar to the cows milk that we were used to.

We have just started to milk 2 buffaloes known as Curly and Pasta for our own consumption. This year we are testing the water to see how well we get on handling, milking and trying our hand at cheese and ice cream making.

The future of our produce depends on facilities / planning and their cost but ideally we would like to be able to set up a small milking parlour and dairy processing room so we can sell direct to the local community.

We will hopefully be able to supply a small amount of meat also. It is much like beef except that Buffalo are a different species to cattle and have never had any history of BSE. The meat also has 25% less saturated fat than beef and 50% less cholesterol.

Curly and Pasta being milked

Curly - because she has very curly horns

Buffalo cows with calves

What is a Buffalo?

There are two species of buffalo. The African Buffalo (Syncerus) which are wild and Asian Buffalo (Bubalus) which for the most are domesticated (Bubalus bubalis). Within the Asian Buffalo there are two distinct types ~ Swamp and River buffalo. Swamp buffalo tend to be indigenous to those parts of Asia which do not have a great culture from drinking milk or eating milk based products. This covers Indonesia northwards to China. River buffalo tend to be found in those countries where milk plays a more important part in the human populations diet. The range of this from India through Pakistan into the middle east round the Caucasus and into the Balkans. It is estimated that there are as much as 150,000,000 domestic buffaloes in 50 countries worldwide.

The ‘American’ buffalo are in fact Bison and are completely different to water buffalo. Bison are regarded as wild animals whereas water buffalo are governed by our standard cattle regulations.

Buffaloes cope well in our weather climate and are very disease resistant. Calving problems are rare as well as lameness and clinical mastitis. They can keep calving and milking well into their twenties. To milk our buffalo we will be putting them into calf every year. They will carry a calf for 10 months and rarely have any calving problems.

The buffalo love to wallow in water but it is not a necessity. They have a higher intelligence level than cattle (not difficult!) tending to recognise the people that care for them on regular basis and can react aggressively towards strangers or changes in routine especially when suckling calves. Also, we do not remove their horns because they are used as part of the buffalo’s cooling system. For this reason we advise not to try and enter their fields and should you see any outside of our perimeter fence please do not approach them but let us know as soon as possible. They also have little respect for fences or gates which is why there is double fencing in parts and electric fencing also.

When happy and contented they are docile, affectionate and easy to handle. Milton, in particular, gives Stephen kisses - yuk!

Cheese and Pickle