Recent Guest Speakers entertain RCPF members

On 4th June, Trish Davies from Port Fairy gave an enlightening talk about her experiences in Uganda working with street children and her volunteer work in hospitals.  Trish amazed the small assembly of members with her dedication to support a cause in a 3^rd world country, especially by applying her nursing skills to help disadvantaged children. She certainly inspired all members present to consider what we can do as Rotarians to help the plight of children in such disadvantaged situations.

On 21st May, Roger Halldane, from the Shaw River Buffalo Cheese Farm delivered an enthralling speech about his life and the challenges in starting up a number of diverse farming ventures. The meeting, which was well attended by club members and a group of about 10 guests from the Rotary Club of Mortlake who paid a visit to Port Fairy, thoroughly enjoyed Roger's talk.  The following is an extract taken from the Rotary Club of Mortlake's Bulletin that captures the essence of Roger's very informative presentation.  Our thanks to Mortlake for this report. 

Roger was born & raised in Port Fairy. His parents moved to Port Lincoln and were involved in the tuna industry. The family then entered the prawning industry, and from there started to buy farm land. After purchasing the land, they became interested in alpacas, and went about trying to purchase and import some into Australia. Initially there were problems importing them from South America. Eventually permission was gained to import the animals. The first shipment spent 70 days on a ship between Chile & New Zealand, the ship acting as a quarantine station. They also spent 2 years in NZ, & after that time 480 alpacas were shipped to Australia.

After the alpacas, Roger and his brother had their interest pricked by a phone auction of water buffalo, in the Northern Territory. They purchased 70, and transported them to Lismore, in NSW. It was too cold for them there so the animals were moved to Port Lincoln, a much better climate for them. The cows were milked, but they were not quite sure how to handle the milk. After research and travel through the USA and Europe, they learnt how to make cheeses of various types from the milk.

Forty five heifers were purchased in Italy. These were transported via Denmark for quarantine (6 months plus 40 days), then by charter flight to Australia. On arrival in Adelaide, the heifers were required to spend a further time in quarantine, then were moved to the Purrumbete property near Camperdown, which the family had purchased. They were mated, & after calving, the venture unto cheese making began.

Roger & family have about three hundred milking water buffalo cows, Products are distributed over a wide area nationally through an agent in Port Melbourne. Some animals are also slaughtered for meat. Water buffalo milk has a very high yield, requiring about 4.5 litres to make one kilogram of cheese, which is about half that required for cow’s milk. The milk is white in colour, is very high in vitamin A, and 3 to 4 times the antioxidants of cow’s milk.

The water buffalo can grow to an old age. Roger said that they have cows which are aged 19 years and are still milking. They are able to export surplus animals to Japan, New Zealand and Chile so far, and hope to develop other markets.

A very interesting presentation on an industry some of us knew existed, but knew nothing about.