This week’s blog post is a continuation of chef Rachel sharing our story as we tell it on the farm tour. For part 1 click here. For part 2 click here.

How we care for Pregnant Buffalo

The first pregnant buffalo arrived at the dairy, and from that moment on, we put into action a system we still use today to look after them. It begins in the fields where we check the buffalo to see if they are pregnant. When we find some that are around eight months pregnant, we arrange for them to come to the farm. If they are within 5km, they walk here, if they are further away than that, but not more than two hours away, we go and pick them up. When they arrive at the farm, we put them in quarantine for one month. During this month, we test them for diseases – Tuberculosis (TB), Brucellosis, Hemorrhagic Septicemia (HS) Water & HSOil – and then we vaccinate for Foot & Mouth and the HS diseases. Unfortunately, there are no vaccines available here in Laos for TB or Brucellosis. If we find a buffalo with brucellosis, we will not take her as it is highly contagious (for buffalo and humans) and causes miscarriages. TB, while it doesn’t affect the buffalo, does pass to humans. Luckily, we have not found any with either of these diseases in buffalo brought here!

Each day, we bring the buffalo into a crush where they are fed, bathed and get their teats played with. Remember, these are essentially wild animals, never managed in the way we handle them, so they need to learn a healthy respect for us as well as each other, so no one gets hurt. It takes about three days for the buffalo to get used to this process, after which we can open the gates, and they will willingly walk in with no issues. The reason for this? They are fed a wholesome diet brought directly to them, and buffalo love food. So, what better way to get it, then to have it brought to you!

After the first month in quarantine, we move the buffalo to the sheds where they spend the next month getting fat and healthy because a healthy mum generally means a healthy calf. She will spend the next month here, relaxing and eating well. When a female buffalo starts to show signs of labour – we’ve had some labours last up to three weeks – we move her into our maternity section so we can keep an eye on her. For the most part, we don’t need to step in and help, but occasionally, we are needed. In the last few years, we have had less than a handful of times where we have required our team members to help a calf be born. Had they not been on our farm, those calves would undoubtedly have died, and the chances are good that the mum would have as well.

Once her calf is born, mum and the calf are kept together for the first three weeks so that the calf receives the best possible start to life. This practice is very unusual, in most of the dairy sector, a mum and her calf are almost always separated at birth and not reunited. But for us, that isn’t an option. As we don’t own these animals, we need to make sure that the female buffalo and her calf develop a close bond, so that when they go back to the farmer, the calf doesn’t get lost in the fields. For a farmer to have a calf wander off, would be like having the interest on your bank account wandering off!

A mum and baby relaxing together in the sheds.

After the first three weeks, we only separate the mum and calf at night. Mum comes in first thing in the morning and is milked and then we put her back with her calf for the rest of the day so the calf can continue to bond and also have mum’s milk. We found that this method is healthier for both the female buffalo and her calf. The calves quickly get used to this routine. If you happen to be on the dairy site in the evening, you can see the calves walking away from mum and going to put themselves to bed in the night time pen. They get so used to the routine that we can even leave the gates open, and they won’t go anywhere until morning. That is of course, except for the very cheeky calves, who are likely to sneak off at night for a warm drink. ☺

When we start milking the female buffalo, then we start paying the farmer a rental fee. But how much the farmer receives depends on his buffalo. The buffalo provide milk for approximately six months. If the buffalo is a good milker, then we can milk her longer and pay more, but if she is not a good milker, we can milk less and pay less.

Feeding the buffalo on the mini farm before she goes home to her farmer.

After six months of milking, we move the mother from the dairy side of the farm to the tourist mini-farm. Here, the buffalo is the star attraction in the milking demonstration, while we dry her off. Your average dairy cow gives you between 30 and 70 liters of milk a day, but buffalo provide much less. Our local Swamp buffalo only provide about 2.5 liters a day, so when they get to the mini-farm for drying off, they only give a few hundred grams of milk a day. This is why buffalo products cost so much more than cow’s milk product. After their time on the mini-farm, we return them to the farmer. We aim to return all the buffalo when they are between 3-4 months pregnant, and with better genetics on board.

Ferdinand, our friendly Murrah buffalo, posing for the camera.

How we stumbled into setting up a Breeding Program

In 2016 when we were first setting up the farm, we were looking to own the buffalo. However, while calling and emailing around to look for buffalo to buy, we stumbled across the GuangSi Institute in China. When we asked them if we could purchase buffalo from them, they promptly told us no because they only sell to public and government entities, and we were neither. We thanked them and went on our merry way. But then, they emailed us back and asked where we were. When we told them, in Laos, they immediately thought we were affiliated with the breeding program that they had helped set up with the Laos government. They started to include us in all their correspondence back and forth with the Laos government, and we were able to see what was going on with the program.

In June of 2016, we were invited to a meeting in Vientiane, between the Chinese and Laos governments, to ask what it was we were doing. To make a long story short, we told them that we were in the process of building a farm to house 200 buffalo at a time, 400 over a year. We knew that over the last 30 years the buffalo numbers and size in Laos had been decreasing and the genetics were changing, due to a lot of inbreeding practices, lack of vaccinations and not having the proper feed. We explained that we wanted to rent the buffalo from the farmers to milk them, and in the process crossbreed them with the Murrah buffalo that the Chinese government had brought in, to make bigger, stronger, healthier buffalo, and make them better milkers as well. Murrah buffalo can give between 8-10 liters of milk a day, so that was perfect for us.

After our explanation, it was decided that the two Murrah buffalo at the agricultural center in Vientiane should be moved to our farm, along with the whole breeding program! And so, our breeding program began.

One day, two bulls, some semen and equipment for doing the insemination process arrived at the farm and then, all we needed was training! Enter our two international vets! Dr. Ohm, is a world-renowned specialist in buffalo reproductive health and Ronald van Giessen, is a specialist in artificial semination and a specialist in Developing Nations Agricultural Projects. They each played an essential role in training our team to be able to do artificial insemination and get the breeding program up and running.

With everything in place, In December of 2016, we went to Thinkeo Village, next door to the farm, and instigated an artificial insemination program there for the buffalo. We didn’t think anything would come of it because we didn’t think the semen was viable. Still, for training purposes, it was fine. But then, shocker of all shockers, in October 2017, we got a call from Somlit, our favorite village chief at Thinkeo Village, and he told us that his buffalo had just had a baby and it was a crossbred calf. We told him we didn’t think that could be possible, but he insisted that she was, and he wanted us to bring her to the farm so we could show the other farmers that what we were doing was good for everyone. Of course, we agreed, and he brought her to the farm.

The other farmers didn’t think that you could breed a Murrah and a Swamp; they just didn’t think it was possible. Even when we had explained that we weren’t doing anything new, we were just bringing the technology and process here to Laos, and farmers had already done this in other countries, they didn’t want to believe it. So, for us, Somlit’s buffalo would be a light in the window, if she was indeed a crossbreed.

We love Somlit so much – he has always been wonderful to us. Whenever we have a crazy idea that we want to try out, we turn to Somlit and say, “What do you think about….?” He always hums and haws for a minute or two, and then says, “We’ll make it happen.” He’s a very outside the box kind of guy who is always willing to try something new.

Sophia in December 2017 after being on the farm for a month.

Oh, the lovely Sophia!

At the beginning of November, Sophia and her mum walked down the road to the farm; we confirmed that she was a crossbred calf and much rejoicing followed! Sophia and her mum stayed in quarantine for our requisite one month stay. We vaccinated mum, and before long, she and Sophia were moved to the mini-farm to greet farmers and guests. Having Sophia there allowed us to show farmers the difference between Sophia’s size and that of a local Swamp buffalo of the same age. Sophia was obviously both taller and broader. She also loved attention, and a star was born ;0).

Longer-term, it would be the responsibility of the two bulls – Ferdinand and Fabio – to maintain the breeding program. In our first year, Sophia was the only crossbred calf, but with the use of artificial insemination, we were expecting about seven more in Year 2.

Installing Laos’ first Milking Machines

So, up until about two and a half years ago, we were the only dairy in Laos. And, as you can imagine, being the first, we had to import all of our equipment from outside the country. We are still the only buffalo dairy here in Laos, but there is now at least one cow dairy in Vientiane, and we’ve heard talk about the building of another cow dairy in southern Laos.

We brought in a proper machine set up to milk 16 buffalo at a time. That is enough to milk 200 buffalo a day and 400 buffalo a year. When we get to the point that we are milking 400 buffalo over a year, the rental fees that we pay back to the farmers will amount to approximately $40,000 USD a year. All of that money goes directly into a farmer’s pockets, and it is money that they would have otherwise not gotten for their “buffalo bank account”.

Buffalo entering the waiting area for milking.

Buffalo Farm or Buffalo Spa!

In front of the milking area, is the waiting area for the buffalo. With about 60 buffalo on the farm at the moment, the buffalo come in in smaller groups and wait in the waiting area. We milk four or five buffalo at a time. While we milk them, we also feed them. After milking and feeding, they move into the “exit” room and receive a shower. Buffalo come in first thing in the morning and have a shower, in the evening they come in again for another shower and then in the middle of the day they come in for a shower and a scrub down. Once a month they get their nails done. Yep, this farm sounds more like a buffalo spa!

After the showers, the buffalo wander back to the sheds. We currently have three sheds, which provides capacity for 150 milking buffalo at a time. In the back corner is the quarantine shed. We recently expanded our quarantine, so we can now bring in about 40 buffalo at a time. We were hoping that we were going to be able to get funding this year to build the fourth and final shed so we could house 200 milking buffalo, but with everything that has happened in 2020, that isn’t to be (yet!).

Next time join us for the final part, as we take you on a virtual tour of the mini-farm. Find out who you meet and what you can get up to on a visit to the dairy.

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