AN SA dairyfarmer has found an innovative way to make use of his family's idling dairy equipment - he introduced buffalo to the system.
Corey Jones, Mypolonga, studied carpentry in Adelaide for five years but realising city life was not for him, returned to his family farm two months ago with hopes of reviving an industry that was a big part of his youth.
"I was always working on the farm as a kid but when everyone went out of the industry, mum and dad did too," he said.
As a first step, Mr Jones took up a job at a nearby dairy cattle property and began to assess his farm and the state of the industry to see where his future lay.
"I realised milking cows was not going to happen," he said.
"The most cows I could run is 150, and you need to grow these days. It was always going to be a small farm."
His search for other options landed him a job on a dairy goat property and put him in touch with Woodside Cheese cheesemaker Kris Lloyd about potentially providing her business with goat milk.
Instead, Ms Lloyd suggested Mr Jones take up buffalo or sheep milk production because it offered her a point of difference to other products she was selling.
"I went home and talked to my fiance and my parents and they laughed it off," he said.
"I didn't look into it until about three or four months ago and when I did a bit of research I realised it wasn't as crazy as it sounded."
With a complete cattle dairy already established, Mr Jones decided on buffaloes as there were very little alterations required.
In fact, within a few hours, he managed to alter the headpieces to allow for the larger space a buffalo needed and soon set up what was one of only a couple of buffalo dairy herds in SA.
Mr Jones found a group in Vic, the Victorian Buffalo Industry Council, which put him in contact with breeders Chris and Robyn Richmond, Koondrook, Vic.
He bought 300 buffalo cows and one bull from the Richmonds, a blend of Riverine and Italian imported bloodlines.
He said there were some differences between buffalo and a traditional herd.
"The first week was testing but other than that they got used to me and the farm and it was fine," Mr Jones said.
"They're pretty good; as long as they have got green feed and some hay, they're pretty content.
"They're pretty tough animals.
"Now they're just kind of like dairy cows - they come in when it's milking time."
He said they do like a channel to wallow in and has set up some of the former irrigation farm channels with water.
Until he has more volume Mr Jones is milking into test buckets, with each cow producing about five litres each day. Eventually, he wants to expand further.
* Full report in Stock Journal, August 21, 2014 issue.
