The Lynch family is located just outside of Macroom, Co. Cork, and runs a rather unique dairy operation.
Your typical dairy cows will not be found on this farm, as the family milks a herd of water buffalo instead.
As if this wasn’t a unique enough practice in itself, the farm has also built its own cheese factory on site where they process all their own milk, rather than being supplied by a co-op.
Kieran Lynch is the man behind the operation, a fifth generation family farmer who has taken over the reins from his father Johnny.
Johnny had grown up with typical Friesian cows and milked them himself for years, but with milk prices falling in 2009, he decided to take a risk and try something different.
Then water buffalo in northern Italy caught his eye, and Johnny made the bold move of becoming the first Irish farm to import the breed, with just over 30 head joining the herd.
After 17 years, Johnny took a step back from actual farming operations and moved over to the cheesemaking side.
In that time, the size of the buffalo has increased dramatically, with 700-800 buffalo now being reared across five stands, two of which are milking blocks.
Currently, of the 320 buffalo scheduled to be born in 2026, 88 are currently being milked in the main area, with another 105 in the outer area.
The remainder will decline over the course of the year while others dry out, to ensure consistency of milk production for the cheese factory.
The farm maintains a constant solids level throughout the year of 7.5% fat and 4% protein from an average of 2,700 liters per feeding, as its main product, mozzarella cheese, requires a fat to protein ratio of 2:1.
Maintaining this production allows them to strive for a 25% return on milk production, which ultimately means that every 100 liters of milk should be equivalent to 25 kg of mozzarella cheese.
Buffalo breeding
The gestation period of buffalo is around 312 days, just over a month than the typical Friesian cows that the Irish dairy sector is used to.
This may seem like a disastrous length of gestation from a distance, but with the Lynches supplying their own cheese factory, they need to reduce inventory throughout the year to keep up with milk production.
To do this, a stock bull is usually given the task of insulating any spring calves.
Kieran then uses artificial insemination (AI) on the autumn calves, saying it is the best opportunity to bring in new breeds, using hay imported from Italy.
When it comes to breeding, he noted that they have had problems with heat detection collars in the past, which was likely caused by the animals’ thick skin.
However, he is looking forward to formulating smaXtec doses this year after hearing they are working on a buffalo farm in the UK.
Kieran also noted that the post-heat AI window is very different from dairy cows, saying the window opens about 24 hours after the start of heat, but it has a large range.
They use a Draminski estrus probe, but even at that, he said the margin of error can still be very large, making it unsustainable for AI of the entire herd.
Kiran said that they achieve up to 70% in terms of pregnancy rates, noting that buffalo farms in other countries are very surprised by the high rates.
When it comes to breeding, his main breeding standards relate to milk solids like the majority of dairy farms.
Kieran also looks at health aspects, saying prolapse-related issues are common and appear to be hereditary, as well as breast issues.
Interestingly, once the buffalo is inseminated and gets into the calf, it starts drying itself out.
After a month or two of pregnancy, the volume will begin to decrease, and four months before giving birth, milk production will stop completely, meaning no need for dry tubes or antibiotics, unless a quarter of them have mastitis.
birth
When calves are born, their weight can range from 30-55 kg depending on the bull.
In fact, Kieran noted how he gave birth to twins in April, a rare sight considering the chance of a buffalo having twins is only 1/1000.
He said the calves weighed 34kg/head at birth, and both were in good condition and in good health, as was their mother.
The Co. Cork farmer added that the breed is actually quite easy-going when it comes to calving, with only five caesarean sections needed in the past 10 years, if not longer.
However, this year was a strange one, with two animals needing caesarean sections, although Kieran noted that one was extremely healthy and the other was a baby cow.
From there, the calves typically spend the first two and a half months at home like the majority of dairy calves in the country.
Kiran feeds them milk replacer through automatic feeders, saying the calves get 50 kg of milk powder each during the season.
However, it has also been noted that in an attempt to mimic buffalo milk which is naturally high in fat, Kiran needs to find an alternative that has a fat content higher than or equal to the protein content.
This often makes him choose sheep’s milk substitute instead of calf’s milk substitute.
Diet
The grazing season was tough enough as it is for the average dairy farmer, but for the Lynch family it was even tougher, considering that water buffalo by nature like to dig and dig in the corners of wet fields.
Kieran said he would have a lot of happy animals if he let them, but they wouldn’t be so happy when they didn’t have grass for the rest of the year.
Fortunately, from now on, with dry conditions, the herd will be in full force out in front of the grass.
It will then be able to haul feed concentrates from 6kg to 2kg.
During the winter, Kieran allows dry cows to strip grazing feed and turnips in an attempt to prevent subsidence, which is common when staying at home but less common when outside.
He aims to replant between 5 and 10% of the farm each year, and any fields that are replanted will be allocated to these winter crops.
The rest of the herd relies on silage during the winter months, but Kiran pointed out that if the silage contains too much moisture, this will affect the flavor of the milk and continue until the final products are reached.
He should therefore aim for a high 77% dry matter digestibility (DMD) silage, and feed residue where this is not possible to maintain consistency of flavour.
Macrom Buffalo Cheese
In 2015, the Lynchs set up their own cheese factory and began selling under their own brand name “Macroom Buffalo.”
The main focus when they started was mozzarella cheese, as demand was strong.
This was something Johnny originally noticed in 2009 when purchasing his first batch of buffalo, but despite this there was no buffalo mozzarella production in Ireland at the time.
However, since then, the Lynch family has significantly expanded their product range, with several types of cheese now produced including ricotta, burrata, bocconcini, Cypriot style and Greek style.
More recently, the family farm has also branched out into yoghurt making, where a range of flavours are produced.
Every evening, the milk produced from morning and evening milking is emptied into the factory silo.
At 4 a.m. the next morning, the lights in the cheese factory flicker as the cheesemaker gets to work with that milk.
It begins with pasteurization to get rid of bacteria, where the milk is heated to a high temperature and then quickly cooled.
From there, he adds rennet, an enzyme that helps separate the whey from the curd.
It then waits for the pH to drop to 5, as this is the point at which the curds can be heated and stretched, where they are eventually formed into balls of mozzarella cheese.
These balls are then dropped into a mold of cold water, which shocks them into a permanent mozzarella ball shape.
Finally the cheese maker puts these things in a brine solution.
This is the only preservative used, but it has the ability to keep fresh for three weeks, which Kieran said is “enough time to get into the supermarkets and into the cupboard”.
He explained how mozzarella and yoghurt are only made to order, as their shelf life is so short that orders cannot be hoped to arrive on time.
However, any surplus milk not required to meet the day’s orders is used to produce longer shelf life products such as their Greek-style cheeses.
If you’re interested in learning more about Macroom Buffalo Farm, tune in to episode three of Agriland’s limited podcast series “The Dairy Trail” on Monday (May 4) at 5:00 PM EST. here Agriland Or whatever platform you use to listen to your podcasts, Kieran tells us all about her work.
