Over the previous three blog posts, we have shared with you the story of how we got to where we are today! I think you will agree it has been quite an adventure and, indeed, continues to be so. So today, we thought it made sense to take you on a virtual tour of our mini-farm. We would much rather be able to share the tour in person however, unless you are already in Laos (in which case come and say Hi!), then this is definitely the next best thing :0)

Welcome to the Laos Buffalo Dairy! We are going to start by heading to the café to wash our hands before we visit the animals. On the way, one of the first things you might notice is that there are other animals than buffalo on the farm. That’s because when we started building the dairy we decided that there were some other projects we could include in the design. The mini-farm was built as a space for farmer training as well as a kid friendly space for families on holiday to come and discover.

When we first arrived, Luang Prabang didn’t have many activities for kids to do. And, we all know that if you go on a family holiday and your kids don’t have fun, then neither do you! So, the mini-farm is a hang out where kids, of all ages, can get up close and personal with animals.

We also knew, after some observation and research, that there were better methods of raising animals in Laos, but we, as foreigners, couldn’t just come in and say, “Hey, you’re doing it all wrong! Change everything you’re doing.” The mini-farm serves as a practical “seeing is believing” demonstration that we share with farmers. Everything we built uses local materials, so farmers can have a look and see that they can reproduce the same for themselves. While some of our structures are bigger or grander than necessary because it’s a tourist stop, farmers can see how to scale it for their own needs. Seeing it work, takes the fear out for the farmer, who will then be more inclined to try it out.

This Little Piggy

For example, our pig pen is situated near the main office and the café. No one in their right mind would do that unless they could be certain the method we applied worked! No-one wants to eat or work near a smelly pig pen! Our pen has been dug down to a significant depth, and the pen is filled in with rice bran husk or Job’s Tears. The husk is a byproduct that the farmers usually burn, which in turn is harmful to the environment. The rice bran husk stays in the pen for 3-4 months, and helps to absorb the smells. Our team removes the solid waste daily, which also helps to keep the smell down. The pigs are constantly digging in the husk, which helps turn it over and create a nice organic material - I do ask the pigs as they dig to find me truffles, but, so far, no luck - ha ha! At the end of the 3-4 months, we clear out the husk from the pen and put it on our crops as an organic fertilizer, which saves us money.

Bunny Palace

The next stop is to the rollicking rabbits. The rabbits will come rushing over to say hello and see what you might be about to feed them! Farmers in Laos do breed rabbits for food, but the rabbits are mostly very skinny and there aren’t many of them. Our bunny palace is a good way to show farmers how to breed and look after rabbits. In Laos, most farmers raise their rabbits in cages on the ground, leaving the rabbits with no ability to get off the wet ground when it rains (and Laos has a rainy season!). Rabbits are actually very delicate and cannot tolerate a lot of heat or wetness. The bunny palace is set up on stilts so the rabbits can escape the wet ground when needed. There’s also a concrete pad underneath the hutches which helps wick away some extra water and, in the summer, it provides a cool spot for them to relax in the shade.

Rabbits are a great resource for people looking for a good, fast growing source of protein. Rabbits can get pregnant for the first time at around six months of age. Rabbits have a divided uterus, so they can have two separate pregnancies going on at the same time and they are pregnant for about one month - who’d have thought! Also, did you know that a litter of rabbits is called a ‘fluffle’? Isn’t that cute! So, in a country like Laos where there are many poor and undernourished people, breeding rabbits can be a good option as a source of protein. A rabbit only costs about $12, as opposed to a buffalo that costs about $1,200, and of course rabbits reproduce much faster.

Training Room

The next stop is the training room/library. At the farm, we offer free English classes to any of our team who are interested to learn. When we first started the farm, there was no one out here who taught English, and our team wanted to go back to town for lessons. But that didn’t work for us. It took them an hour to travel each way, and then an hour for class, and class wouldn’t start before 9am at the earliest. So, that was three hours out of the work day when the animals needed tending. The solution; we started English lessons on the farm. And we currently offer them four times a week, as opposed to just once a week in town. In the beginning we had volunteers come and teach for us. Our very first English teaching volunteer, Peter, set up the initial lesson plans for us and we had a few volunteers who came after who tried to keep the lesson plans going, but eventually we saw that they all reverted back to, “Hello, my name is... What’s your name?” You can read more about our English classes by clicking here.

Because of our affiliation with the government and our work with the Northern Agricultural & Forestry College and Souphanouvong University, we managed to arrange for English at the farm to expand to the local community. Since no one out this far taught English we had a very happy community. We were lucky enough to have a conversation one day with GVI – a group in town that teaches English - mostly to monks, but to others as well – that led to a collaboration to teach at the farm. GVI would come out with their volunteers and teach a few days a week and continue the lesson plans going forward from where our team was up to. It ended up being a win-win.

Our training room has recently been transformed into an after-school library for the kids. In December 2019, we received a donation to help make this transformation happen and the high school kids from VIS in Vientiane came to help set it up. You can read more about our local Lao teachers and community English lessons by clicking here.

Milking Area

The milking area is where our visitors can have a go at milking a buffalo! After the milking, we meet some of the mums and calves and get up close and personal for our selfie pictures. Not sure who enjoys this more, the visitors or the buffalo! Our buffalo love to be cuddled and after the cuddles, they expect a bath. Our intrepid visitors can get out the hose and scrub brushes and try to make funky hair styles on the Murrah cross breeds, as they have longer hair, perfect for styling. But even if you just want to stroke the buffalo with a scrub brush, they will happily stand still and take in all the attention. We call it buffalo gushiness!

Buffalo Feeding

After bathing the buffalo, walk over to the outside of the pen and feed the buffalo some Napier grass. Each buffalo eats at least 10% of its body weight a day, which amounts to about 30kg of food a day. Napier grass is extremely nutritious for the buffalo, and is also drought resistant, handy in a country like Laos where there is a long dry season. And the best part? It’s a local grass which can be found just about anywhere in Laos by the sides of the road.

Buffalo Cuties

The next pen is the cutest, as here are the buffalo calves! The calves you see here are almost always full blood Murrah babies. Once the calves reach the four-month mark, they can be fully vaccinated, which means they can come to the mini-farm and play with the guests! These buffalo adore being out here because although they are fully weaned and no longer need milk, most of our guests choose to give them a baby bottle with buffalo milk in it – they don’t strictly need it, but they LOVEit!

The Dairy - a quick peep

Step away from the calves (if you can leave all that buffalo cuteness behind) and have a peep over the fence at the working side of the farm. We can’t let you go on this side of the farm, because to be frank, we don’t know where you have been! Seriously, since we don’t own the animals we have to be careful not to let any diseases on site that may harm the animals. From here you can see the milking area and the sheds that shelter the buffalo.

If you look between some of the buildings, you can also see the tall Napier grass growing out the back. We currently have almost 17 hectares of grass, which is enough to feed 100 buffalo for a year.

As we walk back to the café, we pass our cow and calf on the right and our newest additions, the goats! Both of these play a role in the expansion of our nutrition program. You can read more about our nutrition program here And our cows here.

And now we are back at the cafe, it is time for you to enjoy some of our delicious buffalo dairy inspired treats.