About Mathom dairy goat farm

A History of Mathom Farm

"The Mathom-House it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort." --The Fellowship of the Ring, "Concerning Hobbits"

Mathom Farm was first registered as a business in Chittering Valley Western Australia in 1992. The business began as a mixed farm running beef cattle, poultry, and later citrus making extensive use of leased land. Whilst travelling around Tasmania for a month in 2000 we fell in love with a house and cow dairy on river flats in Gunns Plains. Mathom Farm Tasmania commenced business using the 86 acres [34 hectares] to grow and trade cattle. After teaching teenagers for 25 and 27 years we decided to sell up in WA and farm only in Tasmania. Call it madness, mid life crisis, the love of Tasmania or just the need for a career change but in 2002 we purchased a second farm in Tasmania, an established goat dairy, situated on the neighbouring property. This consists of a house, a modern goat dairy and stock with 10 hectares of rain forest on 75 acres [30 hectares]. Both properties are well developed, the first having generally good pasture, and a second having excellent pasture with an exemplary fertilizer history. Both properties have water licenses to irrigate from the Leven River.

So with very limited knowledge of dairy goats and at a time when most couples are waiting out their years to pick up their superannuation, we took the plunge and cut ties with our successful WA teaching careers.

There are times when we argue the difference between handling goats and handling recalcitrant teenagers. We do agree that the skills acquired in the classroom can also be applied in the dairy! Do we have any regrets? You be the judge after you have visited and read the remaining pages of our website.

The 2007/2008 Season

UPDATED

01/07/09

Kidding began on the 4th of August 2008 and our aim was to milk 330 goats in the 2008 2009 season. In 2004 2005 we milked 467 up to late March, when drought conditions and diminishing silage stocks forced us to dry off 140 of the 467 milking does. In the 2006 2007 season we milked 340 does and because of a maturing herd easily reached our production target.

After enormous spring pasture growth and a bumper silage and hay harvest, we were left with the problem of controlling the pasture in our valley-side paddocks. Grasses running to flower and seed are not nutritious and we struggled to keep the feed fresh. Around Christmas, feed quality dropped significantly so in January we were forced to buy cattle in order to help eat the pasture down, and now, in July, 18 Angus heifers are mated to an Angus bull. The heifers are due to calve in November. We also added a small flock of "no-shear" sheep to bolster our meat supply. Late summer was again very dry however we were blessed with autumn rain beginning in March. Our 50 acres of irrigated pasture were grazed right up to the end of the milking season in May however the autumn rain helped fill out our night paddocks on the valley sides and this greatly reduced the feeding out of silage. In fact, because of the bumper silage and hay crop in November 2008 we had such a large surplus that it was almost all sold off to other farms. The World Financial Crisis and preceding escalating feed, fuel and fertiliser costs had a very adverse effect on all aspects of farm management as it increased cost for pellets, chemicals and diesel. Electricity charges for irrigation and for running the dairy have been increased too, to a total of 40% more than in 2007. When the price of fertilizer costs began to subside in late autumn 2009 we applied extra to try to make up for the deficit, however because growth was tapering off the benefits have yet to be realised.

In September 2008 Hillwood Cheeses was sold to National Foods and our contract transferred. Because of our margins diminishing so greatly, at our annual meeting we approached the buyers for an increase in the price for our milk, however it wasn't until late June that a not quite satisfactory agreement was reached and this was too late for us to adequately prepare for the coming season. The result was that we are unable to take advantage of a price rise in the months of August, March and April because of the constraints of the reproductive cycle of goats. In fact, the new pricing regime will be difficult to turn to our advantage at all as August is our lowest milk production month, and after mating in March the does dry up very quickly. On the graph below, notice the fall in production during early summer. Also note that the number of does milked refers to the average milked as there are always some that are sick and injured. The number also compensates for those who kid late and dry off early.

The herd was reduced in size during the winter as many of the "Old Girls" reached the end of their lives and goats 10 and 11 years old and had served us well didn't survive some of the hard frosts that occurred in June and July. We also culled a number of the herd to cut down on feed costs and to allow better nutrition for those who would form the 2008 2009 milking herd, so goats from the "meat herd" were brought in to be milked. As we are now nearing retirement we don't rear any replacements so our herd will gradually diminish is size until, at the end of our present 5 year contract, it will be down to a size that won't be too much of a burden on our financial resources.

Because of the uncertainty of our position with National Foods our breed plan for kidding in 2009 was abandoned and we ran bucks according to their stamina rather than their genetics. In autumn 2009, at the end of the milking season we had a total goat population of close to 360, comprised of a milking herd of 320 and a meat herd of 40.

During the 2008 2009 season we produced no Capretto for sale. Our cheese sales were restricted to "old customers" who we supplied out of loyalty to them. Surprisingly, the WFC had a small impact on cheese sales to our core customers.