Our journey into goat farming. It has been a long one.
Image Credit: Google Images
My wife and I have our family roots in farming. But the both of us became city children and sort of grew out of our farm roots.
But clearly some roots still stayed.
I became a so called corporate worker in Kuala Lumpur and met and married my wife when both of us worked for a short while in one of the banks. And I think it was in 1996/97 when our roots started to reassert. It was also the beginning days of the Asian Financial Crisis.
We brainstormed for a “recession proof business” and settled on food. Figuring that Malaysia had moved quite away from agriculture under our previous Prime Minister’s industrialisation programs, and that we, Malaysian Muslims, needed live animals for the religious occasions of korban and aqiqah, we settled on animal husbandry.
Our sum knowledge of animal farming was zero. With the desktop research skills I had, we managed to put up a proposal to apply for land from Jabatan Haiwan, Johor for land to do cow rearing.
And we got 50 acres around Segamat. That was our start.
And then I got a job in Africa that took me away for 3 years. Though I came back frequently, my wife found it difficult to manage the mechanics and logistics of trying to set up a farm and raise a family single-handedly.
So we decided to return the land back to the Jabatan and that was the end of Phase 1 of our journey.
We still continued to do our research into cow and goat rearing and I visited many farms whilst in Africa and well as in India where I later worked for 2 years.
The critical success factors, in our view, are:-
a) Suitable land,
b) Adequate capital,
c) Suitable workers,
d) Trustworthy management
e) Technical support
All the pieces finally fell together and in September 07, we signed an agreement with Unggah to lease her land for a JV in goat rearing.
Now when I look back over all those years, I remember those times spent looking for land to buy or lease. Many of the leasing arrangements fell apart due to one reason or another, whilst the lands for sale were either way out in price or location.
Unggah helped raise my wife in Tampin / Alor Gajah when my father-in-law was working in Singapore. She loves my wife like her own daughter (she has 3 daughters of her own). Unggah’s mother, Puan Induk, helped looked after my son when he was born and we had a new maid at that time.
Alhamdulillah, everything is now all systems go.
My objectives are clear. I shall do all I can to make the farm succeed and further Unggah’s family economically and intellectually. I have to work out a system and just follow the system and, Insya’Allah, everything should fall into place.
And I have great resources to base my system design upon.
For one almost all goat farmers in Malaysia are friendly and very unselfish in sharing experiences. I can never ever repay Tuan Haji Mustapha for all the time and effort he has spent in guiding me before I spent any money on the farm.
In addition, a National Association has just been formed from whom I can also get guidance.
And not to forget Government Agencies like AGRO Bank, Jabatan Haiwan, and the various District Offices.
