This Farming Life star Steve Mitchell gets greenlight for buffalo mozzarella production

Well known buffalo farmer Steve Mitchell has been dreaming of this moment since he first started his buffalo herd in 2005 and has been working endlessly this year to put the final touches to his brand-new mozzarella and ice cream factory – with hopes to add these unique products to his ever-growing larder at Boglily Farm.

The SF caught up with Steve to hear how his business plans have come together over the past year, including the state-of-the-art facilities that have been added to his operation for milking and housing his buffalo, and to hear the exciting opportunity he is offering to Scottish farmers to join his mozzarella adventure.

Avid followers of ‘This Farming Life’ will remember the dramatic conclusion to series three, where Steve had to make the brave decision to sell his brand-new herd of milking buffalo, after his plans to start mozzarella production collapsed.

“It was a tough pill to swallow, and everyone was there to see it unravel with the TV cameras following,” admitted Steve.

Determined not to let his dreams gather dust, in the summer of 2019 he launched a successful crowdfunding campaign which raised over £800,000 and allowed him to revamp his plans.

“We were very grateful for the profile we received off the back of This Farming Life and were blown away by the support from the public for our crowdfunding campaign.

“We believe it has been a great investment for our supporters too as we are paying them in produce and want to ensure they are part of the whole journey – they made this happen.”

That same year, Steve alerted the attention of a new investor who he says has been a fantastic addition to the venture, bringing a wealth of business experience, as well as being a valuable mentor throughout the whole process.

Between grant support, crowdfunding, third-party investors and personal investment, Steve has spent around £2.5 million on his new mozzarella and ice cream facility.

Construction of the new sheds began in April 2020 and reached completion early December.

The livestock building has plenty of ventilation to make it more comfortable for the buffalo Ref:RH220321181 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

Ryan Brown from Robinsons Agricultural in Lockerbie has been working with Steve over the past year to build both of his new buildings: “We had to design two completely different buildings which made this a very unusual project,” he explained.

“One building had to house the buffalo which was all focused-on air flow and making it comfortable for the livestock and the other factory building had to be airtight to accommodate the manufacturing process.”

Project management in Forfar designed the building to host the mozzarella and ice cream factory but both buildings were executed by Robinsons Agricultural. Ryan explained that they had responsibility for the livestock design.

“The buildings are 160 feet long and 110 feet wide and are of a steel frame structure with traditional timber purlins and fibre cement roofing. We designed the livestock building to be split in half with one part to house 110 buffalo in cubicles and the other half to accommodate the state-of-the-art dairy and an area for calving and youngstock. Everything was designed to make the milking process as stress-free as possible with limited gates to allow easy flow of the buffalo.”

They also had the additional challenge of building a viewing area to allow those who have invested in the process to come and see it for themselves and to see their names displayed on the founders wall.

Part of the Robinsons group, the FarmFit division, was responsible for developing and designing the internal outfit, this included the feed passage, gates, cubicles, and water troughs.

By late summer, Steve hopes to have built up his buffalo number to be milking 120 per day Ref:RH220321167 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

“No internal layout is ever the same,” continued Ryan, “every farmer has their own tweaks to meet their livestock’s needs. We really enjoyed the challenge of working with Steve and were pleased to be able to meet all his ambitions.”

The new premises are located at Bankhead of Raith Farm which is adjacent to Steve’s family farm at Clentrie – it was originally the old dairy farm and Steve was keen to retain as many of its traditional features as possible.

“We have tried to make the factory fit the countryside and have used some of the old sandstone to create the entrance, and larch cladding which will weather in time to blend in” added Steve, who was also keen to ensure the new building matched his green ambitions.

“We have fitted a ground source heat pump as we are going to be using a lot of hot water, and by increasing the base temperature we have reduced our heating bills and made it much more efficient.”

He added that a nice addition has been the underfloor heated office which has been appreciated by members of the finance team who have relocated to the new site.

Steve’s original business plan had explored installing a second-hand herringbone parlour to milk his buffalo but on the advice of Scott Baird from DairyFlow, he went down the route of putting in a new eight point tandem parlour.

Scott Baird from DairyFlow with Steve Mitchell and the new tandem parlour

Dairyflow are the main GEA Farm Technologies dealer and they had previous experience working with a buffalo farmer in England who has reaped the benefits of using the tandem.

“Herringbones are ideal for larger numbers as they come with more milking units, but Steve’s smaller set-up was the perfect size for a tandem,” Scott explained.

“With a tandem parlour there are eight units, and the cows are milked head to tail in individual stalls which allows greater space for their horns, creating a stress-free environment. It is also perfect for buffalo as they take a lot longer to milk due to holding the majority of the milk in their body not their udder, so it can take more time to stimulate the milk to drop.”

The buffalo have automatic identification collars which record their milk yields and adjusts their feed intake accordingly. Similar to traditional dairy cattle, buffalo are ideally milked twice a day at a 12-hour interval, but unlike cattle, risk of mastitis is much lower,and Scott pointed out that buffalo calves are less prone to pneumonia.

In the tandem parlour there are eight units, and the buffalo are milked head to tail in individual stalls which allows greater space for their horns Ref:RH220321160 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

Cow comfort is paramount to the new buffalo sheds and Scott helped install £12,000 worth of mattresses, which he explained were a costly but worthwhile investment: “The buffalo are on 30mm latex foam mattresses with a woven top cover which is what we would normally fit for dairy cows. Buffalo are content with lying on concrete and straw, but Steve said he wanted to make sure he invested in cow comfort right from the start.”

This also included installing two swinging rotating vertical brushes with electric motors, which the buffalo utilise frequently due to their proneness for itching.

Buffalo are prone to itching and make good use of this swinging rotating vertical brush which has an electric motor Ref:RH220321162 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

Along with lots of shiny new equipment, Steve has also expanded his staff numbers: “I was approached by a farmer’s son from Kirkcaldy who used to make mozzarella from cows milk and who was looking to semi-retire from his current work with Grahams Dairy and move closer to home. Jim Ritchie was interested in what we are doing here and wanted to offer his skills and experience which have proven invaluable in overseeing the layout of the new factory.”

A chance encounter with a Venezuelan man - whose grandfather set up the country’s first buffalo milking herd 70 years ago – has added further knowledge and experience to the business with Juan Regetti now managing the cheese factory.

He also provides relief on the farm for Adam Porter, the new dairy man, who previously worked at a dairy in Kent, milking Holsteins.

Adam is currently milking 20 home-bred heifers, but the yields are still quite low. Steve anticipates a big increase when the 50 imported Irish and German heifers calve mid-summer and has plans to build up the herd to reach capacity of 120 being milked, per day, by late summer.

He started milking at the beginning of January 2021 and said there was barely enough milk to put in a coffee, but now he is producing over 100 litres a day which is going in to ice cream production. He added that they have space left in the factory for a bottling facility too – with plans to sell fresh buffalo milk in the pipeline.

Steve explained that his mozzarella equipment works most efficiently when optimum output is achieved in batches, requiring 1000 - 1200 litres of milk per batch, so in the short term until he can build up his numbers, he is going to be focusing on ice cream.

Some of the equipment that will be used in the making of mozzarella Ref:RH220321176 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

“Freshness of milk is important for mozzarella; we milk in the morning and have mozzarella in the afternoon – there is no maturation period. We would need to get it out as quickly as possible, so we have a bit of work to do behind the scenes to get it approved.”

The factory has been built with the capacity to produce 10 tonnes of product per week, but Steve said that realistically his own milking herd will only ever produce two tonnes. This is where his proposal to Scottish farmers comes in, to join him in this venture.

“A big part of our business plan is to speak to other farms and gauge If they would be interested in investing in buying buffalo and supplying us with milk.

“We believe it could be a really lucrative opportunity for farmers as there is huge demand now from customers for local produce with low food miles - Scottish buffalo mozzarella ticks a lot of boxes. Buffalo have much longer longevity than dairy cattle and there will be a higher value attached to their milk, farmers could expect around 70 to 75 pence per litre,” he explained.

Buffalo can be milked in the morning and you have mozzarella by the afternoon - no maturation period is needed Ref:RH220321173 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

Over the next few years, Steve hopes to go into partnership with some Scottish farmers but says that the more local the better.

“Food miles is very important to us and we want this to be integral to our venture as we establish who we are as a brand. Any potential partner would need to share in our values.”

He isn’t wasting any time and already hopes to begin talks with farmers, hoping to bring in third party milk by as early as next year.

The venture has already received interest from many large multiples and Steve and his team are already in discussion with a major multiple to stock his mozzarella. He has been really inspired by Macroom Buffalo of Cork, who have a great relationship with Aldi, and hopes he can replicate something similar here in Scotland.

“This time next year we are hoping to have a listing with one of the major retailers and gradually grow it from there. With the pressure from investors and the founders there is no time to let the grass grow, we need to really push ourselves and that is why I am really focused on having conversations with potential farmers as soon as possible.

“Given we are producing something totally unique here, we intend to be a price setter not a price taker and this means we can offer a good price to the farms we work with and I believe everyone who has invested in this venture will reap the benefits,” he concluded.

Interested Scottish farmers can find out more from Steve by emailing him at steve@thebuffalofarm.co.uk