Warwickshire farmer Bob Palmer keeps the only commerical herd of water buffalo in Britain, says Rana Kabbani. Photographs by Jason Lowe.
The farm of Upper Nineveh could, by the sound of its name, lie somewhere in the upper reaches of the Nile or on the banks of the river Jordan. It is, in fact, in Warwickshire and home to Bob Palmer, keeper of Britain's first commercial herd of water buffalo.
Palmer started farming buffaloes ten years ago when he faced up to the fact that he simply couldn't afford to keep a conventional dairy herd. "Neither my wife nor I come from a farming background, so when we first got our herd of Jersey cows, being new farmers, we had to lease a milk quota. Because the quotas limit milk production to protect the prices, it got to the point where, because ours was only a small concern, the money we made barely covered our fixed costs and quota lease. It certainly didn't provide us with any profit. So we started looking around for an alternative milk to produce."
In the course of his research, Palmer considered rearing goats and sheep. But he ruled them out and says: "I detest goats, and because sheep's milk is purely seasonal, it is not viable as a main source of income. I was aware that there were thousands of buffaloes around the world being farmed for milk but there were no commerical herds here. There's always a higher risk with alternative milk, so I thought why not go the whole hog, as it were, and started looking seriously into raising buffalo."
There has long been a tradition of rearing buffaloes in Italy and there are now in the region of 160,000 animals there, although Romania and Bulgaria boast the most numerous herds in Europe. To start his own herd, Palmer bought 12 black river buffalo calves from near Salerno in southern Italy. "I wanted to rear them myself, just in case they didn't take to the cooler British climate or there was some other problem. But they are very sturdy, adaptable animals and they really took to their new surroundings." His herd now numbers 250, although only 80 are used for milking. There is no system in place to sell on his male calves, as for conventional dairy farmers, so he ends up rearing them himself.
"Cows are very susceptible to mastitis and foot diseases but buffalo are amazingly resilient to illness. I have not had to treat any of the beasts with antibiotics. They are not organically reared but they lend themselves naturally to organic principles."
According to Palmer, buffaloes are a very ecological herd to keep. "They can 'convert' incredibly poor quality forages, in other words they can survive on land where the grass is sparse and rough, which is why they are so popular in India." His herd has a natural diet of grass, straw and hay in summer, when they are put out to graze and, in the winter, when they are brought in, a blend of cereals and clover hay. No meat, bone or fishmeal is ever fed to them, nor do they receive growth-promoting hormones, or antibiotics. Another advantage of rearing buffaloes that Palmer cites is that it brings him closer to his customers. "Modern agricultural methods mean that farmers can forget they are part of the food chain. There's always a middle man to take your cattle to slaughter, or a tanker to collect your milk. But when you rear buffalo, you must go out and find your market. This means hand-delivering milk to the dairy that processes it, and taking your own beasts to the abbatoir. This is reassuring for the customer because it means that all the meat and milk is fully traceable. I keep records which prove that the animals have never been dosed with hormones and antibiotics. It also means that I get feedback on my product."
After ten years in the business, Bob Palmer is a passionate believer in the superior quality of buffalo milk and meat compared to that of cows. Buffalo milk is very low in carotene so it is a pure, brilliant white. It is also natually homogenous, because the fat globules are small and therefore evenly distributed throughout the milk, which has a higher level of cream, protein and lactose than cow's milk. Because of its greater concentration of solids, dairy farmers only have to process half the amount of buffalo milk as cow's to attain the same yield. When processing the milk to make cheese, there are more curds and less whey, in other words, less waste. This means a considerable saving for the farmer, and a better return for his investment. And what's more, despite the higher level of cream, buffalo milk registers significantly lower cholesterol levels than cow's. All of these benefits mean that buffalo milk and milk products are believed to be tolerated better by allergy sufferers. Likewise, the meat is leaner, lower in cholesterol and higher in minerals than beef.
Palmer delivers his milk to Carnevale, a London dairy, which makes it into mozzarella and hard cheeses. He also supplies a local yoghurt-maker, Bill Bond-Williams. Among his biggest customers are the Asian confectioners in nearby Birmingham, who make a rich, smoky clotted cream. This is the cream that I ate as a child, known in my native Damascus as qayma. This is consumed throughout the Middle East and used to make toothsome sweets and festive puddings. Similarly, Bill Bond-Williams' yoghurt is the nearest equivalent that I have tasted in the West to the rich yoghurt from the Caucasus Mountains which is believed to prolong life. Life-giving properties aside, Palmer says that many people find that, after tasting his buffalo milk, cow's milk tastes rather salty and less clean on the palate. He puts this down to homogeneity of the buffalo milk.
Clearly, buffaloes will never replace cows for milk production and as a source of meat. But there is a market for buffalo milk and it could provide a livelihood for small family farms that choose to make the investment. "I would never go back to milking cows," says Palmer. "Buffaloes have a fantastic temperament and they seem to appreciate what you do for them. In many ways, they are very rewarding animals to keep."