White gold
Top End buffalo have gone from feral pest to nationally and internationally recognised commodity.
How Top End buffalo became hot property – and top dollar.
JUST HOURS OLD and unsurprisingly wobbly on his new hooves, the rich black bundle of buffalo fur huddles against his mother’s 530kg frame. Naturally protective, she sniffs the top of his newborn f luffy topknot and focuses, with ears pricked, on the sound of the two approaching vehicles. Thick grass, still swamped from a generous Top End wet season, is no challenge for either driver as they plough through the lush f ield. “Easy. Easy there, girl. Easy does it,” Bob McDonald croons reassuringly. “That’s the girl.”
We’re outside Darwin at Beatrice Hill Farm, Australia’s only buffalo research and development facility, where Bob is acting general manager. He and his colleagues Jared Palmer and Travis Messner separate the cow and calf using their four-wheel-drives. “Calving is when the real work begins,” explains Bob, as his hand caresses the mother’s hide. “From day dot, we tag the calves and this little fella’s a good 44kg,” Bob says, his voice brimming with pride as he reassures the new calf, now tagged, calling out for his mother. “She’s right here, mate.”
Mother and son quickly rejoin the maternity ward resting in a nearby mud pool. “We document the calf ’s birth weight, as well as the mother’s tag number, then we continue recording the calf ’s and dam’s weight at 100day intervals,” Bob explains.
“An ultrasound test determines the calf ’s rump fat measurement at about 6–9 months, which is significantly heavier than cattle at that age. Calves are weaned when they’re at least 200kg, and then moved, without their mums, to the f loodplains to build up condition. By 18 months the weaners have reached a solid 450kg. We work 365 days a year and love it,” says Bob.
Timor swamp buffalo were introduced to the NT as a meat source in the early 19th century.
Bob has spent almost 20 years in the Top End and a lifetime working with stock and crops. “I love animals,” he says, “and they sense this in me and my staff, like Jared – we call him our buffalo whisperer because he’s so relaxed with the stock, and Travis – you’ll often hear him singing around the property.”
Beatrice Hill Farm, located on f loodplains of the Adelaide River, 65km south-east of Darwin along the Stuart and Arnhem highways, is an invaluable resource for the Northern Territory buffalo industry research program. It’s 2800ha of extraordinary country. Here, deep, sandy, red earth, which is best for buffalo production, mixes with gravelly laterites, sandy boggy f loodplain fringe soils and black cracking clay f loodplain soil, which covers 75 per cent of Beatrice Hill and doesn’t need fertilising.
Pride and passion
Timor swamp buffalo were introduced to the NT as a meat source in the early 19th century and spread across the f loodplains of the Top End. By the 1880s two breeds of riverine buffalo had also been brought in from India – Murrah and Jafarabadi – and all three types of buffalo were used as draught animals, and for meat, milk and hides. But feral buffalo became an environmental and agricultural threat in the Top End during the 20th century and extensive culling began in the 1980s.
From these dubious beginnings, however, a buffalo farming industry has been steadily growing. And the man at the forefront of that for almost half a century has been Barry Lemcke, the cattle and buffalo research off icer for the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industries and Resources (NTDPIR). Widely considered the foremost authority on the Australian buffalo industry, Barry facilitated its move into dairy production. He’s tried to retire several times without success, coaxed back into the fold repeatedly because of his unparalleled expertise.
“Buffalo have been the key workhorses in the NT, well regarded for their size and quality meat,” observes Barry, who’s planning his retirement again and this time is determined to see it through. During his stellar career he’s written the country’s only buffalo-breeding and production manual, which was commissioned by AgriFutures Australia (formerly the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation). And his four decades of work and research have been critical in driving the industry’s modern progression.
A new generation of buffalo producers in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria now either manufacture their own – or work with cheese manufacturers to produce – dairy products from high-grade buffalo milk, widely known as ‘white gold’ or by the Italian name oro bianco.
“It all began when I was 22,” Barry says. “One day the directors of Pioneer Concrete turned up at the University of Sydney’s Camden campus [where he was an agriculture undergraduate] in a Rolls Royce looking for someone to work at their new NT station, Mudginberri, which is now part of Kakadu National Park.
“The job involved heading up their pasture-improvement program, which basically meant adding improved species and superphosphate [fertiliser], a def inite requirement for cattle or buffalo production. It was a new frontier for me and we did everything, from mustering and fencing to grass trials and pasture preparation, plus they had a plane, which excited me because I already had my pilot’s licence.” While at Mudginberri, Barry met his wife, Helen, a nurse travelling around Australia who was one of the cooks.
In 1974 the couple moved next door to Munmalary Station – now also part of Kakadu NP – to manage a buffalo domestication program there. “There was no 240V power, no plane and we were completely cut off during the Wet,” Barry recalls. “But we had a 32V lighting plant and telephone (until Cyclone Tracy hit), a kerosene fridge and a good-sized pan to fry barra, which we’d catch almost every third cast during the peak Wet at a f loodplain crossing close to the homestead.”
A year later Barry joined the Animal Industry and Agriculture Branch of the NTDPIR at the Upper Adelaide River Experiment Station. “Brian Ford was working on buffalo growth and reproduction trials at the department’s Coastal Plains Research Station, which is now Beatrice Hill Farm. I transferred there in 1978 and Brian took me under his wing,” Barry expains. “Five years on we began a groundbreaking growth-rate selection scheme with a base population of swamp buffalo, and, through genetic selection, gained a superior
product and performance that supplied improved bulls to local and interstate producers.”
During the next 34 years Barry’s Beatrice Hill work became vital for the NT’s buffalo industry. From 1994 to 1997 eight US-imported riverine buffalo were crossed and backcrossed with local swamp buffalo to eventually create the riverine progeny that now form the basis of the Australian industry.
“That f irst cross gave us a 40 per cent increase in growth rate, so that was a game-changer for the program,” Barry says.
In 1999 the f irst shipment of imported Italian buffalo semen arrived at Beatrice Hill. “It’s the only readily available dairy buffalo semen that can be brought into Australia,” Barry says. “Italy has such a well-developed [buffalo] dairy industry and has undertaken genetic selection for almost 70 years, and bulls are rated on an index system that includes milk volume, protein and fat content, which is similar to the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme for dairy cattle. The semen has been used in our AI [artificial insemination] program and since then we’ve increased the riverine [Italian] content over f ive generations of backcrossing. It has taken nearly 20 years to build up more than 100 head of purebred buffalo, putting us in a position to supply Australia and the world with premium purebred buffalo for meat and milk.”
In 2015 Beatrice Hill sent its f irst bulk shipment of those elite buffalo to a dairy at Mypolonga in SA at a price much greater than that reached for cattle meat values. “We now have 360 adult buffalo here that reach anywhere between 650kg to just under a tonne prior to calving, and see about 150-plus buffalo calves [born] each season,” Barry says. “We keep most of the heifers, a few of the best breeder bulls and send a good number of heifers and bulls annually to various producers and dairies around Australia, and turn over any surplus bulls to Vietnam for meat.”
Milk matters
Corey and Mollie Jones, directors of the South Australian Buffalo Company (SABC), own the dairy at Mypolonga, which sits on the Murray River about an hour east of Adelaide.
“I’m a third-generation dairy farmer,” Corey says, proudly. “My papa, Sydney Cecil Jones, whom everyone knew as Skeet, bought this property in the 1940s. I remember when I was
In 1999 the first shipment of imported Italian buffalo semen arrived at Beatrice Hill.
about eight getting up at the crack of dawn to milk the cows, then doing it again after school. I loved it and got paid $2 a day by my folks, who would turn off my alarm sometimes so I could sleep in. But when the drought devastated my parents, Paul and Vicki, in early 2000, it made me rethink the future.”
After some costly lessons and considering the possibility of working with goats, Corey had a couple of conversations with cheesemakers and sought out Barry’s buffalo expertise. “I always knew of Barry’s impressive work, so I brought 31 in-calf heifers down from Beatrice Hill, then two more truckloads and now we have 220 head,” Corey says.
Today, his company supplies buffalo milk at $3 per litre to cheese manufacturers in Melbourne, the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley. That includes internationally acclaimed cheesemaker Kris Lloyd, CEO and head cheesemaker at Adelaide’s Woodside Cheese Wrights. SABC also provides meat to six outlets across SA at $1100 per 250kg steer. The meat is reared in the same way as beef but it has a higher protein content and less fat than beef, with no gamey f lavour.
“It’s a big investment but we have a solid base and exceptional stock with plenty of potential in the industry,” Corey says. “Barry’s also happy to help…and definitely helped me turn the business around. So we’ll keep doing this for a while.”
Corey hopes to have children to continue the Jones family tradition, to continue our ‘‘heritage, the legacy of our land, the company’s success and the future of the buffalo industry that Barry has created over the last 40-odd years”.
More than 600ha of Australian Dairy Buffalo Company land in Koroop, three hours north of Melbourne, is now also home to about 700 Top End buffalo. “Ninety per cent of our stock is bred from genetics directly or stemmed from Beatrice Hill,” explains buffalo farmer Jack Blow. He and his wife, Alice, are co-directors of the Victorian property, along with Mitch Humphries, who also continues to run the company’s original property in Millaa Millaa, south-west of Cairns.
Mitch bought part of his f irst herd from Beatrice Hill in 2002, another 150 cows and three bulls in 2012, two bulls in 2014 and f ive bulls this year. “Mitch also deals with our Italian cheesemakers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and New Zealand, who rely on fresh produce – and our buffalo milk is some of the freshest in the country!” Jack says, explaining that monthly milk samples from each cow are used to monitor various quality traits.
Jack, who grew up on a family dairy, lost everything through drought then met a local couple who needed their buffalo herd milked. “I eventually went out on my own. Then I met Barry, who’s so invested in Australia’s buffalo industry. He loves hearing about our herd. If he doesn’t have an answer, he’ll get one.”
Barry will retire soon and Jack plans to continue his legacy with the Victorian herd. “We’ll have to start doing what Barry
does down here with herd genetics because we can see longevity in buffalo particularly after the rapid, quadruple growth that has occurred over the last few years,” Jack explains.
Buffalo balls
Another successful new buffalo producer is Elena Swegen, who owns Burraduc Farm, in Bungwahl, near Myall Lakes, 265km north of Sydney. “Our mozzarella tastes just like it does in Italy and it’s fresh,” says Elena, who in 2014 was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to research innovation and welfare in the buffalo dairy industry. “I regularly go to Naples and parts of the Campania region, which is the traditional buffalo-breeding and mozzarella-production part of southern Italy, to learn the craft of cheesemaking and follow the techniques and packaging used there, to ensure our product is authentic, fresh and tasty.”
There are about 40 buffalo on Burraduc’s 40ha, and, like Corey and Jack, Elena has taken time to build her success. “Earlier this year we won the Delicious Produce award for the state, which is testament to our quality and hard work,” says Elena, whose farm is NSW’s very first A-grade licensed buffalo cheesemaking and milking facility. “Danielle Alvarez, head chef of Sydney restaurant Fred’s, nominated us and now we compete in the nationals!”
Barry helped Burraduc establish its foundation-breeding female buffalo 10 years ago from Beatrice Hill’s US and Italian bloodlines. “Today we have an exceptionally strong and healthy herd and wouldn’t have achieved this without Barry,” Elena says. “He’s a scientist who gives farmers the ultimate start, advises generously and can be trusted immensely when it comes to genetics. Whoever takes over from Barry won’t have the same ground-up involvement, interest, persistence and theoretical knowledge because, put simply, no-one can replace him. But the buffalo industry is going forward because its quality, reputation and products are being acknowledged, and Barry and his lifelong work are responsible for this.”
A buffalo future
It’s hoped Barry can mentor someone into his position and consult on AI at Beatrice Hill, build more opportunity for buffalo production across Australia and further massage the country’s attitude towards and understanding of buffalo produce.
“For Beatrice Hill to thrive, there must be strong local industry uptake and development,” he says. “There are currently 12 buffalo dairies operating around Australia and 11 were originally supplied from Beatrice Hill stock. It would be terrif ic to see one operating successfully in the Top End. There are niche buffalo meat markets but these require a local abattoir to accommodate buffalo. Top End production also requires improved pastures and fertilisers to make intensive use of available land and increase the carrying capacity per head. Ponded f loodplains are also a huge boost to productivity because they trap wet season water and provide green feed in the dry season. However, the bottom line is private enterprise or entrepreneurs need to grab the potential already realised here and run with it, whether it’s meat or milk, or both.”
Barry’s f inal task is to review the buffalo research program and recommend future directions before retiring. “Buffalo has become a valuable resource for Australia and the biggest hope was getting dairy going in the Territory. If it’s possible to maintain buffalo milk production in the wet/dry tropics you need a good supply of feed, preferably green, so that probably means some irrigation is needed here to successfully navigate the dry season. If we can prove it works here, then we’ve got a viable dairy option for many tropical overseas markets,” he says, suggesting that even in retirement he’ll keep a close watch on the industry. “I’ll also get the rods and reels ready and make a start on my wife Helen’s to-do list, which is as long as my arm.”
“We have a solid base and exceptional stock with plenty of potential in the industry.”