It can be hard to fathom being recognised on a national level for your hard work, let alone to be crowned the best of the best. That’s what the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards Producer of the Year prize does. And that’s precisely what Elena and Andrei Swegen of NSW’s Burraduc Buffalo Dairy have gone home with.

Although the Swegens never intended on milking buffalo, fate intervened about 15 years ago when their daughter Aleona decided to become a vet. She did one of her training placements in the Northern Territory – where feral water buffalo roam free – and the family saw an opportunity. Water buffalo are far less susceptible to disease than domesticated cow species, and are also much hardier overall. The milk they produce also happens to be high in fat and delicious. To the Swegens, the switch from their small Jersey cow hobby farm to becoming Australia’s leading producer of buffalo products was a no-brainer.

2023 is not the first year that the Swegens have been lauded for their buffalo milk products; they took home the gold medal in the From the Dairy category in 2022. But this year, the couple has upped the ante. They’ve been awarded the highest accolade of Producer of the Year. One taste of Burraduc products, and it’s not hard to see why. Pot-set yoghurt so rich you can stand up a spoon in it; dreamy, creamy burrata and mozzarella; dazzlingly bright blocks of feta; and richly marbled, slightly gamey buffalo sausages are just the beginning.

The quality of the Swegens’ produce comes down to the molecular level. Andrei Swegen is an astrophysicist, and Elena is a soil scientist. During her journey from amateur farmer to award-winning creator, Elena was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to pursue a research project on innovation and welfare in the water buffalo dairy industry.

The Swegens also allow their 80-strong herd of buffalo at Burraduc to live with their nursing calves for around nine months. This lowers stress in all the animals, who will stop milk production when they’re not happy. Happy animals also make for tasty milk, rich meat and an overall more natural way of farming. The buffalo fatten themselves on healthy grass which requires no added fertilisers, pest or blight management (unsurprising when one of the owners is a qualified soil expert), while the farm dogs guard the herd from any predators.

Related news: The 2023 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Award winners have been revealed!