Water buffalo milk and yogurt being produced in Nova Scotia
Why water buffalo? 'The cheese is delicious,' says farmer Stefan Kirkpatrick
A Nova Scotia family hopes that taking a chance on an unusual farm animal will build their business.
Desiree Gordon and Stefan Kirkpatrick are young farmers who own a small herd of water buffalo in West Dublin, near LaHave on Nova Scotia's South Shore.
"We were looking into all sorts of different dairy animals. I thought sheep, but they breed so quickly. We don't have too much space and then goats — I don't like the way they smell. Then I read something about water buffalo and they said it was so friendly, so I said what about that?" said Gordon on CBC's Information Morning.
"And the cheese is delicious — that was my main reason," said Kirkpatrick.
The huge animals, which can weigh more than 550 kilograms, are native to Asia and Africa.
The pair started out last November with two pregnant cows, Mia and Cora, and a bull named Norman. The animals came from a farm in Ontario. The two calves were born in March and June, bringing the herd to five.
'Mozzarella is a real art'
Kirkpatrick milks Cora and Mia, while Gordon uses the rich milk to make cheese and yogurt.
"The richness of the milk really comes out in buffalo mozzarella and other fresh buffalo cheese like ricotta," said Kirkpatrick.
He said water buffalo milk has about twice the amount of fat as cow's milk and has more protein, which means you make more cheese with less milk.
Buffalo mozzarella is a staple in parts of Italy.
"The mozzarella is a real art that I don't feel that I've totally mastered, but the yogurt is really delicious," said Gordon.
Kirkpatrick said the animals aren't easy to farm on a large scale, so creating a mechanized water buffalo dairy farm would be difficult.
Raising water buffalo for dairy products is also huge outside of Italy, says Kirkpatrick.
"The rest of the world ... they supply about 12 per cent of the world's milk supply. In India, they're huge, [in] Pakistan they're huge," he said.
Kirkpatrick thinks there's a lot of demand for local buffalo milk in Nova Scotia.
"Locally-sourced cheeses and yogurts and even milk are so hard to come by around here," said Gordon.
Gentle creatures
Kirkpatrick said the water buffalo are really gentle creatures.
"You still have to be cautious of the fact that they're massive creatures, but they're really easy to get along with, really friendly," he said.
With files from CBC's Information Morning