Milking the business
NESTLED amid the green of Kota Tinggi is a 33.6ha farm which is home to more than 1,000 Anglo-Nubian goats.
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| LUCRATIVE: The farm is spread over 33.6ha of land in Kota Tinggi. |
The farm, owned and managed by Ladang Anglo Nubian Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rainforest Capital Sdn Bhd, started two years ago with the growing of dragon fruit plants and the breeding of arowana fish.
But what prompted the company to rear livestock on the farm was the 500-metre stretch of the Sedili Besar river fronting the farm, which makes it ideal for livestock breeding.
Managing director Loi Tuan Ee said the company brought in 400 Anglo-Nubians, a genetically superior breed of mountain goats, some 10 months ago.
Loi said the farm, which currently churns out 350 litres of milk a day, has a target to increase the volume to 500 litres a day by the first quarter of next year.
The goat population is also expected to grow to 4,000 goats within three years.
“Right now, we do not have the volume to meet the demand for export yet but when we have more goats on our farm, we will be able to export to countries such as Indonesia and Singapore,” he said.
Due to its 14-day shelf life, goat’s milk may not be the best product for exporting overseas. But the company will unveil a new product next year which will cater for the domestic and foreign market — goat’s milk ice cream available in tubs and sticks.
When the ice cream finally hits the market some time in March or April next year, Loi said the company is looking at capturing a slice of the market in Sabah, Sarawak, Indonesia and Singapore.
Also in the pipeline is the production of goat’s milk yoghurt.
As to why the company chose Anglo-Nubians over other dairy goat species such as the saanen, which is known is to be a good producer of milk in terms of quantity, Loi said the flavour of the milk from an Anglo-Nubian is far more delicious than that of other breeds.
“As the female of the goats are not meant to be slaughtered, we feed our livestock with alfalfa hay imported from Spain.
“The feeding regime is different from that of farmers who breed goats for the meat,” he said, adding that the livestock is kept for five to six years for milk production.
At the processing plant, the milk is pasteurised and homogenised to give it a smooth texture.
It is essential to keep the temperature at four degrees Celsius throughout the processing process to ensure that the freshness and nutritional content of the milk is retained.
“The processing plant is fully air-conditioned and is equipped with a mechanical pumping system and automatic filling machine.
“This minimises human contact to ensure that hygiene and cleanliness is maintained,” he said.
“We still harvest dragonfruits and breed arowana fish on the farm but our future core business will be the production of goat’s milk,” Loi said.
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