Goat farm puts best hoof forward

IT'S not everyday you go to work with 700 goats, but that's exactly what Hashim Bahari and his three staff do at the Penabai Agricultural Farm in Tutong.

The Penabai Agricultural Farm was established as early as the 1980s, but only started to focus on raising Boer goats in June 2007.

The farm manager says the farm started with an initial batch of 212 livestock from Australia. "The 200 does (female Boers) were cross-breeds, rated by the Australian government as F1 or F2 (the highest grade possible) and the males were full-breed Boers," he says of the farm's base stock.

Now, the farm is on its fourth cycle of reproduction and the first batch of female kids have already reproduced twice.

Stock has also grown to more than 700.

"We've done no advertising at all but people seem to be aware and through word of mouth we've started to see some regular sales happening, mainly to the Gurkha community in Seria."

As one of the first, if not only, successful Boer goat breeder in the country, the Penabai Farm's decision to focus on this particular breed was due to the growing popularity of the breed in the Asia-Pacific, says Hashim. "They're now expanding to be bred in Malaysia and have been already in Australia."

Boer is better than other farmed livestock, he says. "According to the American Heart Association (AHA), goat meat (chevron) contains less cholesterol, has low fat and no smell. The AHA actually recommends heart patients to consume goat meat, which is a surprise to many people, including myself, because I was told when I was young, goat meat was bad for your health but that's actually wrong! Compared to beef, pork and even chicken, it contains less fat and cholesterol. It's a very lean meat with low fat content compared to lamb."

Another reason for choosing the Boer breed, Hashim says was that compared to other goat breeds, such as the Saanen, a popular dairy breed, Boers perform very well in tropical climates. "In Australia, a sub-tropical climate, they're doing very well. We're subject to a lot of harsh weather conditions such as very strong heat and torrential rainfall but they can definitely survive if the system is like this."

The main holding pen at the Penabai Farm is crowded and noisy, a modestly sized structure of roughly 800 square feet, filled to every corner with goats.

"We really still lack proper space for the 700, and of course the bigger the better, but economically speaking you would require 15 square feet per head," he says.

Feeding is another issue. "We try to be self-sustaining by growing our own grass, but as I said the land is quite limited, and the soil conditions are very bad. It's quite sandy and acidic so we have to put a lot of natural fertilisers (a mixture of goat dung and water). It's surviving, but it's not enough".

Space is also a premium. The goats "can't be let free under heavy rainfall or heat, but can survive very well under shade, so the disadvantage is that we've got to prepare ample shade for them so they can thrive".

Under ideal conditions, the goats grow fast compared to regular goats. A three-month Boer will weigh 25-30kg on average, but other species of two to three years age will only weigh 30kg.

"The Boer species also have a high meat content, about 50 to 55 per cent of meat is obtained after dressing (removal of bones and skin)," Hashim says.

"That's the difference", he says, adding that Boer goats have a high resistance to diseases and parasites, "but we've still got to contain them in pens to be safe".

The farm also has an existing agreement to get free grass from McFarm Enterprises, at their own cost and labour. Combining this food source with pellets, concentrated with protein, carbohydrates and fats, ensures the animals receive a varied diet and an improved growth performance compared to Boers who are only fed a grass diet.

Speaking on the main objectives of Penabai's goat venture, Hashim notes that originally, "it was to test the breeding methods, whether it works in the Brunei climate and geography. (We now know) they can thrive, and with proper medical care and feeding."

He says the farm can also reduce the number of unwarranted deaths from sickness and so on. "Our second objective is to establish a stock base for breeder does, in which we've been successful as well, as you can see."

The first batch of female kids had already given birth twice, he says. "But we'll need more to be ready for the strong market demand."

There's also a need to develop a strong male stock base for sale to create another source of income. He says though production takes time. "We are breeders (unlike other farms who are only buying and selling), but fortunately Boers are adaptable, with high growth and fertility rates."

To be commercially viable, research has shown that the break-even point for a project like this would take four years, with 500 heads of goats in one farm, says Hashim. But Penabai Farm is looking to do it at a faster rate on the condition of a bigger base.

"I'm talking about 1,000 female pure-bred Boers which we are on track to do so. The main strategy here is to broaden the base. So we plan to move into our land in Labi soon to have proper watering systems, manuring and be self-sufficient in grass. This land is under the Department of Agriculture and Agrifoods, which we are thankful for," Hashim says.

Penabai Farm targets to sell 15 to 20 heads a month at $420 to $500 each (average weight 50kg) which it hopes to achieve in six to seven months.

"As mentioned before it is slowly becoming a popular choice of meat among Bruneians and people have already been asking about it. So we hope to continue that way and convert our current farm in Tutong as a showroom for customers," he says.

When asked whether the farm would go into wholesale in the future, Hashim says the farm is not yet thinking about that as the farm wants to produce meat at an economic cost and sell profitably first.

"What we plan is to first sell live goats, then after getting a larger base, we could go into wholesale," he says.

The Brunei Times