PM recalls goat-rearing days

BY SA’ODAH ELIAS

JEMPOL (Negri Sembilan): Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi likes goats and he had no qualms talking about this interest during a visit to a farm near here.

“I am here because I am very interested in goats,” he told reporters covering his visit yesterday to Ladang Boer Subur which rears over 2,500 Boer-cross goats.

“I used to rear quite a few goats when I was a young boy in Kepala Batas,” the Prime Minister added.

Abdullah said the rearing of Boer goats should be expanded to other areas, adding that he was impressed with the way the 109.3ha farm was being managed.

DRINK UP: Abdullah feeding a kid being held by a farm worker during his visit to Ladang Boer Subur in Jempol yesterday. The Boer goat is an improved breed primarily kept for its meat.

The project here is a joint venture between Gema Padu Sdn Bhd and the Negri Sembilan Economic Development Corporation.

The Boer goat is an improved breed primarily kept for its meat and certain species are known to have an enormous sexual appetite and can mate with up to 80 partners when on heat.

It requires only a small piece of land to rear up to 30 goats, which feed on napier, guinea or kenaf grass.

The Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute has identified the Boer goat as a suitable breed for local production due to its fast growth rate.

Abdullah said agriculture had much potential but in developing the sector as the third pillar of the economy – after manufacturing and tourism – the Government faced an uphill battle in getting the people to see it as a potential money earner.

He said this was because many of those who had been involved in small-scale agriculture remained poor and most of their children preferred to do something else.

“If they only knew the potential of this sector – now that our agro-based industry is going through rapid development – they would have persevered,” he said.

Even then, he added, farmers and others in the agriculture sector needed to change their approach by applying new technologies to ensure optimum use of their land.

“If they want to continue the way that their forefathers had worked on their land, then do not bother. There is no future for them,” he said.

source:http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/4/9/nation/13914723&sec=nation