June 20, 2013
Dairy goats could flourish on small blocks
The new Māori Trustee wants Māori owners to look at alternatives like dairy goat farming to make better use of their land.
Jamie Tuuta is on a national road show to explain the new direction for his office and its new name, Te Tumu Paeroa
He says a surprising percentage of the 100,000 hectares administered by Te Tumu Paeroa is of relatively good quality, but a lot of it is in smaller blocks that are uneconomic for dairying or pastoral farming.
That’s where new niches like dairy goats come in, and he plans to establish a pilot farm on a Waikato block.
"You don’t require a large parcel of land, 30 to 40 hectares is enough to have a viable operation. It has a low environmental footprint, in terms of the effluent and so on. And the milk price is attractive – it's about 2.5 times the Fonterra milk pay-out," Mr Tuuta says.
The existing dairy goat cooperative has refined many of the farming systems needed and established markets.
The Māori Trustee road show is at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna at 6.30 tonight and at the Toll Stadium in Whangarei tomorrow morning.
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