Perth County leading charge with water buffalo herd
A little over 10 years ago, Henry and Inge Koskamp took a leap. The Perth County farmers bought a herd of 150 water buffalo from Florida in hopes of diversifying their dairy operation near Stratford.
It was love at first sight.
“They’re like a really big dog. They love attention. They want to be relational. They’re just really nice animals to work with,” says Henry.
But the Koskamp's water buffalo weren’t brought to Perth County to be pets. The family saw an opportunity for their five children to enter the farming business, by creating their own Ontario market for buffalo mozzarella, which was being imported at a very high cost from Italy.
So far, so good.
“We milk about 140 water buffaloes right now. The majority of the milk goes for cheese production, but just recently we started selling bottled fluid water buffalo milk. We just started two months ago, and it’s going really good,” says Philip Koskamp, one of the Koskamp’s five children.
Water buffalo don’t produce as much milk as dairy cows, but it is high in milk fat and protein, making it nutrient dense. That's one of the main selling points the Koskamp family uses as they literally sell their milk door-to-door.
“A lot of the milk is selling in Toronto on home delivery. We have about 20 retailers now carrying our milk in Toronto, London, Woodstock and Kitchener. Mozzarella is our main cheese market. That’s also in stores in those areas too,” says Philip.
“We have a lot of people who want the straight buffalo milk so they can make it into their own sweets, their own Greek yogurt, make their own cheeses. So, for people that really want to do it yourself at home,” says Jacqueline Koskamp, another Koskamp child running the family’s water buffalo business.
The Koskamps operate one of only approximately 10 water buffalo farms in all of Canada, milking their Holsteins, and water buffaloes, all in the same milking parlour.
They now have 400 head of water buffalo, with plans to expand, as their Koskamp kid-made market dictates.
“The oldest four are all working here on the farm. Either sales, marketing, milking, feeding or running our biogas plant,” says proud mom Inge.
“We’re trying to find out where the frontier is. We don’t know where it ends. You just keep trying things. There’s no such thing as failure, you just learn something you didn’t know before,” says Henry.
For more about the Koskamp’s water buffalo businesses, you can visit www.kampkreekdairies.ca and www.waterbuffalocanada.ca.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
NEW More unauthorized products for skin, sexual enhancement, recalled: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled various items this week, including torches, beef biltong and unauthorized products related to skin care and sexual enhancement.
Where is the worst place for allergy sufferers in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
Do these exercises for core strength if you can't stomach doing planks
Planks are one of the most effective exercises for strengthening your midsection, as they target all of your major core muscles: the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques. Yet despite the popularity of various 10-minute plank challenges, planking is actually one of the most dreaded core exercises, according to many fitness experts.
Polar ice is melting and changing Earth's rotation. It's messing with time itself
One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
NEW 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire': A crowd pleaser that turns it up to 11
Hot on the heels of last year's 'Godzilla Minus One' comes 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,' the first ever Academy Award winner in the giant reptile's decades-long film career.
Deaths of 4 people on Sask. farm confirmed as murder-suicide
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.