IT’S been twelve years since the North Queensland Register first reported on the establishment of Queensland’s first ever buffalo dairy in Millaa Millaa, North Queensland, which was also only the second dairy of its kind in Australia at that time.
On September 17, 2002, 33 Riverine buffalo were acquired by the Australian Dairy Buffalo Company (ADBC) from the Northern Territory’s Beatrice Hill Research Farm.
These animals were the progeny of imported US Riverine buffalos. They were the nucleus of a herd that provided the critical mass required to get the buffalo dairy operation started.
Today, the ADBC herd has grown to 230 milkers, hitting its peak production just recently.
The Riverine buffalo originated in Europe and is prized for its milk production, particularly by the cheese industry.
Buffalo dairies in Italy and Bulgaria provide milk for a range of speciality soft cheeses such as mozzarella.
The Riverine strain that the ADBC owns predominately comes from Italian Bloodlines, through extensive use of artificial insemination to select suitable breeding sires. Imported purebred Italian semen has been used on the herd.
Approximately half of the herd will soon be trucked to a farm in Koroop, Victoria, a distance of 3419 km away. The herd will comprise of adults, young heifers and three bulls.
Director of the ADBC, Mitch Humphries, has pioneered the buffalo dairy industry in Northern Australia and is the current Vice President of the Australian Buffalo Industry Council.
“The business has grown and a lot of our markets are in Sydney and Melbourne so we have outgrown the infrastructure and farm here,” Mr Humphries said.
“Because of the distance to the markets, and with a fresh and fairly unique product, it makes more sense to grow the business closer to the markets,” he said.
The transportation of the animals south will be taking advantage of the herd’s drying off period which occurs from January to March.
The main challenge for the new operation will be adapting to a winter-dominated rainfall pattern and some cold conditions with a hot, dry summer, which is very different from the previous tropical system that the animals are used to.
The new irrigated farm is located on the Murray system and it is expected that the buffalo will produce well on these high quality temperate pastures that also have shelter belts.
Buffalo have been successfully run in cooler areas before.
Mr Humphries believes there will be more opportunities to grow the buffalo dairy business in the new southern location.
This is highlighted by the fact that a national shipping company has recently made a decision not to supply shipping containers to Cairns any more. The shipping containers were used for the transportation of the buffalo milk and must now be obtained from Townsville which results in additional freighting costs as well as hiring time of the container.
Not all the dairy buffalo herd will be relocated to Victoria. Mitch Humphries still sees a lot of potential in the medium- to long-term growth of the local market as well as a growing export markets to South-East Asia.
The company is developing a local use for the milk which has a strong potential for tourism, food trails, boutique cheese making and other gourmet boutique products.
