The couple have embarked on a new lifestyle and purchased and raised 830 goat kids this winter.
Their dairy conversion includes a 4200m2 covered barn and eventually an 80-bail rotary which together will cost between $1.5-2 million before shares. They plan to milk 900 goats from next year and will need about $1.8m to buy shares as their production increases.
Dairy Goat Co-operative average production/goat is 85kg milksolids (MS)/lactation so with 900 goats the cost will be more than $1.76m for shares.
“The biggest issue with the bank was the share price because we didn’t have enough land equity to cover the shares,” Greg said.
The couple own 65ha and lease 144ha from Greg’s parents across the road at Ohinewai Road, Tahuna and used to run 600 dairy grazers and 300 sheep.
They had toyed with the idea of converting to dairy cows for a number of years but didn’t have the passion for milking them.
New options
The couple’s friends ventured into goat farming two years ago and it opened their eyes to a different type of dairy conversion. Goats instantly appealed more to Greg because they were similar to sheep.
“They’re smaller, cleaner and they don’t make mud because they are kept inside year round,” he said.
“I hate mud and cows are really good at making mud. Even the dairy heifers are bad enough.”
Housing the goats is a more controlled system in a volatile climate and market, Greg said.
“A lot of dairy farmers are going that way as well. It’s more expensive, but at least with goats you’re getting a good return.”
Physically it’s a more sustainable conversion for the couple who are in their mid-40s as handling goats is not as physically demanding on them both.
They are going to drop grazing numbers to 400-500.
Dairy goat herds are not typically available for purchase, especially a large herd of 900.
Most new goat farmers have to buy and rear kids, which is what Greg and Lisa have done.
They bought 830 kids from six different goat farmers, paying between $15 and$30/kid.
Goats tend to have an excellent conception rate with 80% kidding within 10 days so it was a huge workload, especially when Greg and Lisa were getting up to 100 new kids a day.
“It looked a bit like a used car yard here at one stage because we had a lot 900 goats will live in the new 4200m2 covered barn of people come and help us,” Lisa said.
To make things more challenging the new barn wasn’t finished so they had to build makeshift pens in their woolshed and existing barns to accommodate the goats.
They bottle fed all the kids and then taught them to drink off a milk train.
When they were a few weeks old they were transferred onto one of four automatic feeders. The couple were working at least 12 hours a day feeding kids and topping up shavings, so the automatic feeders were a saving grace. For Lisa, who had worked off-farm in her wedding supply business, it has been a huge lifestyle change.
“A lot of my closest friends have said to me they didn’t think I would do it,” she said.
“It’s not the most glamorous job. But we have a goal and you’ve got to put the work in.”
It is a huge learning curve for the couple who are learning more about the animals each day.
They visited many goat farms and talked to farmers but have found every system is different.
They will have to work out what system works for them from different feed options to their weaning criteria.
It will be trial and error, Greg said.
Next year they will keep about 300 replacements so the kid rearing should be ‘a walk in the park’ but on the other hand they will be dealing with putting the goats through the new dairy and milking them for the first time so there are plenty of challenges ahead.
But the couple can’t see that they will regret their decision as they feel confident about the industry and the market potential.
