June Flores, owner of Adeline’s Fresh Buffalo Milk Products in San Manuel, Tarlac City, decided to venture into dairy farming despite having no formal education or experience in the field and clinging desperately to nothing but hope.

June had grown up on a farm and loved the simple, tranquil lifestyle. She often recalled family get-togethers from her childhood, such as those that involved a sumptuous breakfast of hot steamed rice, fresh carabao’s milk, and dried fish.

June is a chemical engineer by profession but despite her success, she has never forgotten to look back to how and where she started. “I still mingle and talk with our local farmers.  

In 2017, she bought a farm lot and started traditional farming. This did not pan out well for her as their first harvest was sold at barely break even. This pushed her to find other means of livelihood and decided to venture into dairy farming.

She soon found her way to groups who have the same interest in carabao farming on Facebook and immersed herself on YouTube how-to videos. In her mind, giving up is not an option and always found a way to keep moving forward with her venture. 
“We started with nothing. We relied solely on Google and YouTube. From two native carabaos as our startup stock, we bought additional 14 head of Murrah buffaloes. We were at first overwhelmed and challenged because we had to work out forage, feeding and health management,” said June.

In October 2019, she started with product development. She created her brand name Adeline’s Fresh Buffalo Milk Products. They usually produce 20 to 30 bottles of fresh carabao’s milk for students. Adeline’s chocomilk, pasteurized milk, kesong-puti and yoghurt are currently available and sold in Tarlac, Laguna, Metro Manila, Zambales and select areas in Mindanao.

But since the pandemic, she had to find another way to sell her products with the absence of face-to-face classes. June resorted to the internet to sell her products. She was able to market her products through online selling. It turned out that their biggest sales were during the lockdown.

Her plans to prosper the farm goes beyond production as she is also planning to establish it as a training center or learning site for buffalo production.

“To do this, I am currently teaching and encouraging other farmers to consider dairying as another source of income,” shared June.

She has recently connected with the Provincial Veterinary Office of Tarlac for training and information campaigns that could help her and other interested farmers in her community. 

To meet the sudden spike in demand for Adeline’s Fresh Buffalo Milk Products, June bought another 16 head of pure Murrah buffaloes from Zambales. Most of these were pregnant but were ill managed causing post-calving deaths. 

During this crisis, she met Dr. Marvin Villanueva and Erwin Encarnacion from DA-Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) who helped rehabilitate her buffaloes. She was also consistently communicating with the Carabao-based Enterprise Development (CBED) team of the agency for technical support and trainings on genetic Improvement, herd management, and product development.

With all the challenges that she was able to overcome, Adeline said her being a woman is what made her enduring and resilient. Women, she deeply believes, play a very important role in the dairy industry because of their nurturing spirit. 

I am a mother myself, and I can relate to dairying. Just like how a mom breastfeeds her baby, I found love and passion in taking good care of carabaos. That’s why I am hoping that one day our farm will serve as a learning site or an agri-tourism destination to let locals know the advantages of dairy farming.