DAIRY PEOPLE » Lydia & Sean Baty
Dairy goat farmers Lydia Baty and dad David Phillips inside the milking shed at Tukituki Dairy Goats.
Dairy goats pose a few different challenges Karen Phelps Goat farming is like having 600 children, says Lydia Baty who has just started Tukituki Dairy Goats with her husband, Sean, and her parents, David and Jo Phillips. Even though they started milking in August, the goats are already proving more challenging than sheep or cows. While they were still raising their herd, the goats managed to start a fire because they played with the heat lamp in the shed; another kid was found inside a 200-litre milk drum – how it got there remains a mystery. The goats also ‘pruned’ the Phillips’s immaculate garden when they got out one day.
The Batys approached the Phillips, long time sheep, beef and cropping farmers, with the idea of a goat farm after Lydia started working for the ASB Bank in Waikato and saw what her goat-farming clients were achieving. With her three siblings, she will one day be entitled to a share of her family’s farm, and she says goat farming provided a pathway for her and Sean into land ownership and for farm succession for her parents. “We wanted to be farmers sooner rather than later, so we were looking for something to help us create equity. Because goats are smaller than cows, I can do all the physical jobs on the farm just as well as Sean can. Plus I totally love my girls.”
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Proud to be associated with the Tuki Tuki Goat farm
WE ARE SPECIALISTS IN In-shed feed Systems, Molasses In-shed Feed Systems Fully automated Milling and Mixing Systems On farm and Commercial Meal and Grain Storage Silos and grain Handling equipment Alvan Blanch Grain Dryers, Portable Augers High Quality Skiold Disc Mills, Hammer Mills, Roller Mills, Meal Mixers Mineral Hoppers, Silo Safety cages, Silo Pneumatic Filling systems
GRAIN SYSTEMS, EXPERIENCE COUNTS Central Silo Systems Ltd are specialists in the design, supply, installation and servicing of commercial and on farm grain storage, grain handling equipment, feed milling and meal feeding systems.
A second Hanskamp feeder was added in the Tuki Tuki Goat Dairy allowing the goat to be feed at the entry and a second feed mid milking to help settle the goats and improve milk production.
Business owners Bernie and Sean Curry have 58 years combined experience in this industry and have recently installed automated feed systems to the five new rotary and herringbone rapid exit goat milking platforms in the Central and lower North Island.
Hanskamp Feeders can also be used in herringbone dairy sheds to accurately pulse feed individual cows during milking with electronic ID Systems.
European manufactured Hanskamp feeders were installed into the goat rotary shed for accurate meal dispensing.
Central Silos are also importers and installers of Valco Meal silos and poultry equipment, High quality Skiold disc mills, meal mixers and mineral blending systems, grain silos, portable grain augers and Dryers.
www.centralsilosystems.co.nz Mobile 027 275 6575 Phone (06) 358 5805 Email centralsilosltd@xtra.co.nz
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