Buffalo enter high-end cheese market

Buffalo farming is an emerging rural industry, which is getting a toehold in the Whangaripo Valley.

A family partnership – Chris and Pam Willis and their daughter and son-in-law Annie and Phil Armstrong – imported 17 cows and two bulls from Queensland last October and the Whangaripo Buffalo Cheese Company was launched shortly afterwards.

The only other buffalo dairy in NZ is believed to be located at Clevedon.
The Whangaripo herd is a mix of water buffalo and Italian riverine/Murrah, which Chris says are well-suited to New Zealand’s climate. The company intends to breed for the riverine buffalo which is also a good dairy animal.
“The herd spent five months in quarantine in Australia before being flown to Auckland,” he says. “They have settled in well and don’t have any special needs – they like water to wallow in and need shelter from cold winds. The farm is mostly rye grass, which they like, and they also enjoy scratching themselves on gorse or the barberry hedge.”

The partners come from a variety of backgrounds. Annie has an agricultural degree and is described as the “instigator” of the buffalo scheme. Phil grew up on a dairy but spent 17 years as a deep-sea fisherman in waters as far away as Chile. Pam is in the jewellery business and Chris is a civil engineer, who works at the Redvale Waste Plant.

The family lives on a 150-acre farm at Dairy Flat, where they are involved in the Hanoverian Stallions, in particular Limonit. They bought the 48-acre Whangaripo farm from Robin Farr about two years ago and plan to eventually live there.
“We think we could probably run about 40 buffalo on the property altogether,” Chris says.

All 17 cows calved this year, producing nine heifers and eight bulls. The bulls will end up as table buffalo.

“Their gestation is 11 months, but we still expect them to calve once a year. The meat is tasty – darker in colour and less fatty than beef.”

Phil says the cows let down slowly and can take about 15 to 20 minutes to milk.
Each cow produces around two litres, although the better milkers have peaked at just over five litres.

“It’s quite a bit less than a dairy cow which probably gives about 17 litres in a day.
The family run a stall at the Matakana Market on Saturday mornings, as well as supplying a few select restaurants including Ascension and Tapiano.

“We make no bones about the fact that we are supplying the high end of the market.
While the butterfat content in buffalo milk is almost double that of cows milk, the cholesterol is about 40 percent lower. Buffalo milk also has significantly higher levels of calcium and protein than cows milk.

“It’s ideal for cheese-making,” Phil says. “At the moment we send the milk to a factory in Putaaru where they make it into a brie, blue and a soft white curd cheese.
“We get a lot of requests for mozzarella and will start producing it when our cheese factory is up and running on the Whangaripo farm in about two months time.”

Chris says that true mozzarella is only made from buffalo milk and should be consumed within 48 hours. The Whangaripo factory will also produce yoghurt and possibly some Indian delicacies.

Top: None of the buffalo had been milked before arriving in NZ, so Phil said he had to take things nice and easy.

Middle: The pride of the herd, Buffalo Bill is three-and-a-half years old and weighs between 700 and 800 kgs. When fully grown, he will likely weigh more than one tonne.

Bottom: Chris Wills says he’s only had second thoughts once. “When the herd arrived from Australia they’d be on-loaded and off-loaded several times. Bill had obviously had enough and took to his crate sending shards of wood everywhere. They’re pretty docile animals, but look out if you try to push them too far.”