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JANUARY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


43 Got milk? Water buffalo dairy cultivates following


Passion and tenacity help build markets for niche dairy products from Vancouver Island


by RONDA PAYNE COURTENAY – Water


buffalo milk sells at a premium compared to cow’s milk but encouraging consumers to try and purchase the niche


McClintock’s Farm,” he notes. “We started selling it in the farmers’ markets and are now in a lot of the stores on Vancouver Island and in Choices and Whole Foods in Vancouver.”


Country Ways


beverage can be a challenge. Gerry McClintock, wife Val and daughter Sandra have been milking water buffalo for about six years and know first- hand the challenges to gaining acceptance.


In 2011, Sandra had enough of working for other dairy farmers and wanted to try something new. Together with her parents, they travelled south from their farm in Courtenay to a farm in Duncan with water buffalo. She’d learned that a local cheese supplier was looking for more water buffalo milk and wanted to start a herd. “In a moment of weakness, my wife said okay,” says Gerry, with a laugh of how 15 water buffalo made their way to the century farm that had previously been home to beef cows, hay, sweet corn and berries.


While there had been a dairy on the property back in the early 70s, there was little more than a pit left from it. “Dear old dad built a dairy and a brand new barn after tearing down our old one,” McClintock continues with his story of getting the water buffalo up to speed.


It took about a year for the milk to start, but the family now has about 55 head. The challenges have been significant – not the least of which has been educating the public about water buffalo milk products.


“They don’t milk very


much,” he says. “They produce between seven and 11 liters a day, but she gets twice the fat.”


The high fat content makes for a smoother, creamier milk that is excellent for cheese and other dairy products, but regulations and lack of awareness have kept products on the fringe.


“We are trying to sell our yogurt under our own brand,


In addition to the yogurt, the McClintock’s sell milk directly to a cheese producer in Courtenay, but the efforts with other products


have come to a halt.


Regulations have put a stop to the sale of liquid milk and gelato.


“If we threw enough money at it, we could fix it but who wants to throw $50,000 to $75,000 at something that the payback is a long way out?” McClintock asks.


Help from Buy BC


A grant from the Buy BC program, administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of British Columbia, in 2015 helped augment other funding the farm has received to ramp up their marketing efforts. They used the Buy BC money to increase their online profile and in-store taste-testing opportunities.


“They funded us under the Buy BC program to establish Google ads, demos – lots of demos,” he says. “I think they are more effective than anything else we do because until people taste the yogurt, they are very reluctant to buy it.”


The yogurt won a gold medal at the world cheese championship for non-cow milk products in Wisconsin in


No small task but within reach. Gerry McClintock and daughter Sandra are slowly but surely growing a market for water buffalo milk and yogurt on Vancouver Island. McCLINTOCK FARM PHOTO


2016.


While the milk from water buffalo obviously has its merits, McClintock points out that producers face challenges without a ready-made market for it.


“The struggle is to get enough people to try it and buy it on a consistent basis because the product is more expensive than cow’s milk,” he says.


He says water buffalo milk, with its smooth, creamy and almost almond sweetness, is all the family uses for milk. The McClintocks are part of the BC Water Buffalo Producers Association along with three other Vancouver Island-based farms. While there is strength in numbers, it still may take time before water buffalo milk products catch on with a mainstream audience.


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