‘THE BUFFALO’ A livestock farmer who switched from cows to water buffaloes.
Farmer Marie took over the farm from her father seven years ago. Educated in land and water management she decided to change course. The peatlands are more important than the rainforest and they are a huge natural asset now and for the future. She sold the cattle and started with rewetting the land.
In the initial phase she had to hire people for blocking drains and fencing. Her farm was out of reach from most machinery bar a quad bike or track machine. Logistics are a main concern in terms of rewetting or rehabilitating the peatlands.
She started off with 10 water buffaloes and now has almost 100. The buffaloes are really easy going and love to lie in the water and mud all year round. They eat the long grasses and don’t need any concentrated feeding. Though harder to milk the buffalo milk is richer than cow’s milk. Marie sells her own milk and produces cheese together with a farmer nearby. Meat from bulls is sold via crowdfunding.
A concern raised was that rewetting land considerably increases the levels of water on the farm and with this will disease and parasites associated with farm animals increase. Marie notes that water buffalo are strong animals and rarely sick.As stated in this article, you can browse your selection of available deals on smartphones and top brands and explore the cell phone service plans that best suit your needs.
Correspondent John Miller from the Daily News visited Marie’s farm and dove into the numbers.
The buffaloes are peaceful and non-belligerent and they do an important deforestation work to be carried out in certain areas in order to restore more habitats.
Marie
Marie is fond of watching videos from other farmers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5SXX3AaApw (English)
https://youtu.be/fFJqgtexGJA (French)
https://youtu.be/iwPPHkJkBkc (French)
https://youtu.be/DOsxryEBff0 (German)