Elena and Andrei Swegen never planned to milk buffaloes, let alone have their dairy operation nationally recognised in food awards, but now it is their reality.
Ms Swegen is a qualified soil scientist and Mr Swegen an astrophysicist, but their passion for farming saw them pursue a career in the dairy industry.
"We always wanted a farm," Ms Swegen said.
The couple started a fairly common operation milking jersey cows and breeding horses.
But about 13 years ago they were introduced to buffaloes.
"Our daughter decided to become a vet … and she did one of her placements on a government farm in the Northern Territory," Ms Swegen said.
"There was a program for building up the dairy genetics in a buffalo population in Australia because there are feral buffaloes in the Top End."
Ms Swegen's daughter Aleona learnt buffalos had many good qualities.
"She thought they were quite beneficial for Australia because they are so hardy, very resistant to diseases and still quite natural," Ms Swegen said.
"They are really not susceptible to many of the problems that dairy cows have and the milk is amazing … so we were not very hard to convince."
Making cheese
The pair bought their first two buffaloes in 2009 from the NT farm.
Ms Swegen used to make cheeses with milk from her Jersey cows, so she was eager to see what she could do with buffalo milk.
"We started making fresh cheeses, yoghurt and mozzarella from buffalo milk, just by hand," Ms Swegen said.
"I went to several cheese-making courses, but buffalo milk was pretty much unknown.
"So I was watching a lot of videos of mostly old Italian men making mozzarella by hand in their basement."
In 2014 Ms Swegen was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to pursue a research project on innovation and welfare in the water buffalo dairy industry.
The fellowship trip saw her travel to a number of destinations across Europe, including Italy, where she got the opportunity to learn the traditional craft of mozzarella making.
"Mozzarella is very intuitive," she said.
"I have become obsessed."
Ms Swegen settled on a 40-hectare farm at Bungwahl on the New South Wales Mid North Coast and now has 80 buffaloes.
She has a cheese-making facility on the farm where she makes a range of cheeses like feta, cottage cheese, scamorza and her own invention, "dolcenina".
The Swegens also sell buffalo milk and meat to locals and a supplier who connects them with several high-end restaurants in Sydney.
Award winners
The business won a gold medal in this year's prestigious Delicious Produce Awards, in the "from the dairy" category.
The awards are judged by some of Australia's most renowned chefs, including Josh Niland, Lennox Hastie and Matt Stone.
"That was big … we were so thrilled and honoured to receive the award," Ms Swegen said.
This year the medals were awarded not only for the best quality products but also for innovation and sustainable farm practice.
Unlike most dairies, which remove calves from their mothers a day or so after birth, Ms Swegen keeps them together for six to eight months.
"We share the milk [with the calves], so basically we lose half the milk," Ms Swegen said.
"But the buffalo is treated more like partners in this situation they are very happy."
Ms Swegen said the buffalos enjoy coming to the dairy each day and aren't forced to give milk.
"They produce better milk that way because they stress very easily," she said.
"They have this mechanism in their brain to stop the milk letdown if they're not happy or if they just a little bit uncomfortable."
Ms Swegen said she doesn't use any chemicals in her products or on the farm.
"All our products are fresh [they have a] short shelf life, very natural," she said.
"We look after our pastures in such a way that we don't really need to use anything … we don't use any fertilisers or pesticides and we use livestock guardian dogs to deal with predation."
