Water Buffalo Ranching

Water Buffalo Ranching

In 1995, when I was still in high school, I read an article in Wired about a water buffalo ranch in New Zealand. They were raising water buffalo to commercialize mozzarella cheese. The owner of the ranch, a man named Stephen White, had had a career as a management consultant before deciding to get into this business. He had done a market analysis that suggested the demand for authentic mozzarella (made from the milk of water buffalo) would increase dramatically over the next few years, and he'd decided to open his own farm to take advantage of the trend.

But after he opened his farm, something unexpected happened. The demand for authentic mozzarella didn't increase; it fell. In fact it fell so far that his farm started going out of business. But then something even more unexpected happened: he got an offer to buy his cows. Not all of them--just one particular cow named Elena, who turned out to have extraordinary properties. Some strange genetic mutation or environmental exposure had made her lactation cycle last twice as long as that of ordinary cows. She was producing four times as much milk as a normal cow!

Stephen White decided to sell Elena and use the money to keep the ranch going while he looked for other ways to diversify its

As the ranching industry in the United States sees a decline in profit, many are looking to another country for economic growth. The business opportunity is water buffalo ranching. The beauty of this type of ranching is that it is not only economically feasible, but it provides a vital commodity for the people of the U.S. and is environmentally friendly as well.