Goat Farm Field Trip

Goat Farm Field Trip
August 26, 2009

The DOH children, Jim and I went on a field trip last Wednesday to a working goat farm. We had a great day seeing how the farm was run African style. This is a dairy goat farm with about 150 goats, 10 Frisian/Black and White Holstein cows, chickens, dogs and 2 donkeys. Our friend, Dave Dowdy, has run the farm for the last 15 years. He and his wife started that project as a Deliverance Church J.O.Y. youth project and it is still going strong. Dave will be handing over the project to a new couple, John and Ali, in a few months but says he’ll really miss being on the farm.

Dave’s back ground is as a chemist, so he gave us a very detailed and entertaining teaching tour of the farm. We learned about the types of goats, how they are breed, the type of plants and tree leaves they are feed, and what the farm does to keep it’s self sufficient. We even found that the goats like the banana peels that we had left from lunch…see Robert feeding one of them 🙂

The farm has 2 main types of exotic milk goats, Saanens, Toggenburg and 1 type of exotic meat goat, the Boar from South Africa. We learned that Uganda has no milk pure goats’ only meat goats in the country. By introducing the exotic goats into the country they were able to give the peoples a cheaper way to bring milk to their families in the villages. The farm breeds these goats and sells them to the villages. The project also helps out local village children that do not have ability to go to school. They come and work on the farm and in turn they are given funds to provide for their primary or secondary school fees and some go on to vocational training and university. It’s given many children over the years wonderful opportunities to an education they never thought they’d have!

By teaming with Dave and J.O.Y. we were able to give our children an educational day that they may never have had. The children really enjoyed their day and at least 2 of the boys want to go back to learn more…me too! And nope I didn’t try milking a goat, but I hope to soon!