APPLETON — Jessica Farrar approached the pen holding four water buffalo calves, all about 2 1/2 months old. Faith looked up with her big brown eyes, seeking affection.
Her ears are almost translucent. Her slick tongue, wetter than a cow’s, started licking a stranger’s arm.
The other calves – Hazel, Nutty (who has one brown eye and one blue eye) and Grug – are just as friendly. A fifth calf, Pearl, is in another pen, separated from the rest so she won’t inadvertently be hurt by their occasional roughhousing. Pearl is only 3 weeks old.
“I’ll see if I can get Brandt to come over,” says Jessica’s husband, Brian. “Brandt!” He whistles, and a huge bull (named after his father, Rembrandt) lumbers over in the rain from the field. Brandt looks intimidating – until he walks right up to Brian and starts licking him. “Good boy, good boy,” Brian Farrar coos to the animal, as if he’s speaking to the family dog.
This is life at ME Water Buffalo Co., the only water buffalo farm in New England, according to the American Water Buffalo Association. The Farrars have done so well raising the animals for their meat and milk that they are planning to expand. They’re searching for land where their herd can grow from 26 animals to 50. Fifty buffalo, they believe, is their sweet spot.
“I think more than that, you really start losing your personal touch with the animals,” Brian Farrar said. “We can go out into the field, and we know every animal. We know the personality of every animal. We know them by name. They know us. And I don’t want to lose that. It’s really important to me.”
That’s not all the growth their business is experiencing. Yesterday the couple opened their licensed creamery to the public so their products will be available at times other than the weekly farmers markets in Union and Belfast. Every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the creamery will sell everything from buffalo-milk yogurt and gelato to buffalo steaks, burgers, sausages, bones and organ meats. The creamery will not be open on days the farm is haying, so the Farrars recommend checking their website or calling ahead to make sure they’re open.
“Some people get water buffalo confused with the African Cape buffalo, which you see on National Geographic as being really scary and fighting with lions and stuff,” Jessica Farrar said. “These are domesticated water buffalo originating in Asia. People use them for draft animals, and in Italy they’re well known for their dairy.”
That would be buffalo mozzarella, beloved by cheeseheads everywhere. Water buffalo milk, and products made from it, are prized for their creaminess. The milk contains 8.5 percent butterfat, compared with 3 to 3.5 percent in a Holstein cow, and it has 40 percent more protein than cow’s milk. Yogurt made from water buffalo milk comes out as thick as Greek yogurt. It’s good for thickening gravies and sauces because the extra fat means it’s less likely than cow’s milk yogurt to curdle when heated.
After they are slaughtered, the Farrars’ buffalo are processed at Luce’s Meats in North Anson. Water buffalo meat tastes similar to beef, but is very lean and lower in cholesterol. Because it’s so lean, it can be easy to overcook.
“If you like well-done meat, water buffalo steak is not going to be for you,” Jessica Farrar said.
Last year, the Farrars started sending some of their meat to Herring Brothers Meats in Guilford for smoking. Their “bufferoni” (water buffalo pepperoni) and “buffalami” (water buffalo summer sausage) have been “a huge hit,” she said.
THE S WORD
The downside of owning a water buffalo farm? Shipping animals that feel like pets off for slaughter. “You get very attached,” Brian Farrar said. “It’s sometimes hard.”
The Farrars deal with that issue by following a “no waste” philosophy of using the whole animal. They’ve recently added more products to their repertoire: They’re using the tallow to make soap and lip balm, and they plan to market the animals’ horns as well. Horns are typically used for dog chews, glasses frames, musical instruments and powder horns, which are still used by muzzle-loaders, historical re-enactors and for decorative purposes.
There are only 4,000 to 5,000 water buffalo in the United States, according to T.J. Olson of the American Water Buffalo Association, who owns the Turkey Creek Co. ranch in Texarkana, Arkansas, where he has been breeding water buffalo since 1985.
Olson says that estimate “might be a little high, but there’s a lot of people who have a few animals.” With 200 water buffalo, his ranch is considered a large operation, one of just five or six large farms in the United States, he said. Most people have 10 to 20 animals, just slightly smaller than the Farrar’s animal count.
Water buffalo in the United States are experiencing a small resurgence.
“We have quite a few people who are starting to milk them now,” Olson said. “One reason people with buffalo are doing well is they can get a substantial premium for the milk, and that’s really a tremendous benefit for the small farmer.”
A quart of the Farrar’s raw buffalo milk sells for $8, or $16 per half-gallon, compared with a price tag of $4.25 per half-gallon for certified organic raw milk sold in a Maine store.
THEN THERE’S THE NOVELTY
The ME Water Buffalo Co. has proven to be popular, drawing 300 curious visitors every Open Farm Day, some from as far away as Portland and Greenville. Open Farm Day, which will be held July 24 this year, is an annual event in which farms statewide open their gates to the public. The Farrars take visitors out into the field in a truck so they can view the animals up close and maybe get a “hello, there” licking themselves.
The Farrars did not get into the water buffalo business as a way to make quick money. Neither had any interest in raising large animals, even though both had grown up on farms. Then one day Jessica visited a farm that had a water buffalo – she was there to pick up a guinea pig for her youngest son – and it was love at first sight.
Stop the eye rolling. She means it. And, after meeting her herd, it’s easy to understand how that could happen. “Looking into their eyes,” she said, “there’s something looking back at you.”
BIG DOGS WITH HORNS
People who own water buffalo can’t help but talk about their personalities. They’re smart, inquisitive, affectionate. They thrive on attention. They put their tails up when they’re happy.
They’ll lie down in the pasture if you’ll scratch their bellies.
“They’re like big dogs with horns,” Brian Farrar said, adding that he often rides the big bulls.
Water buffalo don’t have as many sweat glands as cows, so they have to have water or shade to stay cool. Maine is relatively cool, but when the temperature hits the 80s and the sun is out, the Farrars’ water buffalo can be found in an existing pond that the buffalo have expanded with their horns, or wallowing in mud that protects them from bugs and the sun.
“They’ll go underwater and submerge their heads,” Jessica Farrar said. “It’s funny to see the calves – they’ll dunk their heads and blow bubbles.”
Brian Farrar was working as a heating technician in 2008 when his wife fell in love with water buffalo. That Christmas, Jessica’s father – a former dairy farmer who owns the property where the ME Water Buffalo Co. now resides – gave her a water buffalo as a gift. His name was Pablo.
The couple began doing research on water buffalo, and visited the herd manager at a Vermont dairy who has since moved to Canada. “By the time we left,” Jessica Farrar said, “Brian was on board. He was excited about this.”
By 2009, they were purchasing start-up stock. As with cattle, price is affected by factors such as age, gender, milking ability, bloodlines, and temperament, Brian Farrar said. Temperament is important because the buffalo are gentle and docile only if they are handled regularly. Many people have purchased animals hoping to start a dairy with them, Farrar said, only to discover they can’t be milked because they can’t be handled.
The Farrars decided to start by selling meat instead of dairy – the opposite of what most water buffalo farmers do, the couple says – because they figured that was the fastest way to pay for the upkeep of their animals. They separated out the females and slaughtered the males at the age of 2. When they were ready to start their dairy operation – they got licensed for milking in 2013 – they were milking females that they had raised, so the animals were easy to work with.
The couple’s three children – Aidan, Aislinn and Aniston – helped out whenever they could, especially the oldest, Aidan, who milks on the days his mother sells at the farmers markets.
GROWING AN ENTERPRISE
As the family added to their herd, they sold their home in Union and built a new home an eighth of a mile down the road from the farm. This is where the licensed creamery is located now.
The Farrar herd feeds mostly on pasture and hay; grain is a treat for “the girls” when they are being milked, and it’s used as a tasty tool when rounding up buffalo in the field.
“Water buffalo aren’t necessarily more expensive to raise,” Brian Farrar said, “but there are some other costs that go into raising them that you don’t have with regular cattle, such as winter shelter and having to create your own market for your product because there’s no milk truck to pick up your product.”
Creating a local market was one of the challenges the Farrars faced. When they were looking for a place to process their first animals, one processor wouldn’t even talk to them because he heard the word “buffalo.”
“Apparently a bison had torn their place apart,” Jessica Farrar said.
They went door to door, educating store owners about water buffalo meat so they would consider carrying the product.
Finding a vet was also a problem. An equine vet helped them initially, but then they found Dr. Peter Caradonna of West Gardiner, who has learned about taking care of water buffalo right along with the Farrars. “He’s been awesome to work with, and the animals really like him,” Jessica Farrar said.
Last year, the family took another leap. Brian quit his job to run ME Water Buffalo Co. full time and work on its expansion. In addition to finding a larger property, which means having a real milking parlor and a larger barn to provide more shelter for the animals in winter, he’s hoping to start pasteurizing dairy products so they can start shipping them out of state.
While Farrar misses having a regular paycheck, and he’s not getting rich, he says he is being paid in a different way – time with his children. Previously, he said, as a heating technician he might not see his children for several days at a time, especially in the winter. Now, he said, “we’re together all the time.”
Last year also brought its share of sadness. The family had to say goodbye to Pablo, who was just 6 years old. He was a steer, so he couldn’t breed, but he had gotten so big he became the dominant member of the herd and wouldn’t let the breeding bull anywhere near the cows. Jessica kept part of his hide and plans to have a purse made out of it.
The Farrars say they’ve discovered anew that farming means working a lot of late nights and early mornings. There’s a lot of stress, too. But at the end of the day, Jessica Farrar says, “it’s a good feeling.”
And there’s always a water buffalo nearby who needs a cuddle.
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