You've heard of "happy wife, happy life," now get ready for this: happy water buffalo, high-quality cheese that will make you go, "Wow!" That's basically the motto of this 100-plus-year old organic dairy farm in Italy called Tenuta Vannulo, where Water Buffaloes are living their best lives to create the best quality mozzarella cheese. The concept is fairly easy to understand—after all, the movement to raise free-range, hormone- and antibiotic-free cows have been around for a while. The belief is that these cows that are stress-free in turn create better, healthier beef.

The same goes for these Tenuta Vannulo water buffaloes that are raised in a stress-free environment to create milk that is of high quality.

Certified amazing

Organic dairy farm Tenuta Vannulo is found in Campania, Italy, where Mozzarella Di Bufala or mozzarella from buffalo milk is hand-crafted. While Campania does produce a lot of cheese, that of Tenuta Vannulo is definitely premium-grade thanks to their modern facilities that make living a piece of cake for these water buffaloes. In fact, this ranch is definitely one that stands out from the rest, given its "Denominazione di Origine Protetta" (DOP) or Protected Designation of Origin label. According to Forbes, this label certifies that their products, including the well sought-after mozzarella di bufala, is "locally grown and packaged...made by local farmers and artisans using traditional methods." There's only so much to go around that each customer is limited to just 5bkg of this amazing stuff.

But what makes this cheese so amazing? The water buffaloes that make them.

In-house amenities and perks

In Tenuta Vannulo, water buffaloes are treated to a lot of perks just to ensure they grow up stress-free and create stress-free milk that then becomes the much sought-after mozzarella. According to USA Today's 10 Best, the farm is home to 600 water buffaloes that listen to Mozart's symphonies all day and are left to graze on organic feeds and herbs.

If it gets too hot in the summer, these buffaloes just head over to the showers to keep cool. They even have a machine with a large brush-like arm that gives them massages! When they're ready to have their milk collected, it is done so through an automated manner through the Voluntary Milking System (VMS) developed by the Swedish company DeLaval.

This process automatically scans the buffalo to check if they're truly ready for milking and if so, are milked by a machine with a robotic arm. If they're not yet ready, they're led back to the grazing lands. All this places a price tag of about $8 per pound of mozzarella di bufala.
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