I am delayed in posting the itinerary for my recent Phuket trip but i thought it's better to clear the last item in my Kluang itinerary before i start a new one. And yes, i do know i have a ton of outstanding for my Hokkaido visit that took place in summer last year!
Anyway, let's now focus on UK farm which is not a farm in faraway United Kingdom. Instead, it's relatively near to the little red dot we called home and takes less than 2 hours, by car, from City Square JB.
To access the interior of the farm, you would have to purchase their tour which wasn't too pricey at RM47.70 an adult, considering that you would spend about 3 hours and have the opportunity to sit on an old-school bus, sample goat's milk and do quite a bit on animal feeding (mostly for free).
As there's about an hour to go before the tour begins and it's lunch time; we decided to fill up our tummies first. It's a mutton / lamb meal at the farm's resident restaurant; psst, mine was the above lamb chop! For review, click here.
Don't lose your admission tickets as you need them to clear 'security'!
Stepping into UK Farm'officially'; it honestly didn't seem much and with the hot sun shining down on us, i wonder if it is a good move to join the tour. We pampered Singaporeans adore air-conditioning!
Brightly painted old-school bus was ready to take us but as the scheduled timing is still about 20 minutes away, we shall not waste timing by complaining about the heat. Exploring, it shall be!
Statue of a goat with the Chinese words that translate into a "wishing goat". Chinese digs such stuff and i bet you can find a lot of pictures of this goat when you google for "uk farm goat".
Explanation of the goat, known as Lucky Aries, for your reading pleasure.
Something about a 100-year old tree.
Farm was huge and even though i think it's walk-able, the operator doesn't seem to allow a cheaper entry just to explore on foot. You may however choose to live in the in-farm chalet / resorts. I shall share the information at the end of this post.
No fruit plucking or risk the fine!
My sister has history (i remember the persimmon at Jeju) but she very obedient this time; take tons of pictures and nothing (illegally) from the farm.
Walked towards the "mini zoo" that's indicated on the map and passed by this open pen that had ducks, geese and turkeys. I think they were quite accustomed to humans and generally ignored us.
The sorry looking mini zoo.
Check out the link here for more pictures.
Loving the cottony clouds! This was taken at the lavender garden which as incredibly pathetic and incomparable to what i saw in Hokkaido!
Random!
Supposed to be the place for sheep challenge but as the tour was starting soon, we thought we could check it out after the tour instead. It didn't materialize as we were hot, sweaty at the end and couldn't wait to soak in the comfort of air-conditioning!
Friendly feline came towards us and my friend, a cat lover, was immediately taken in by the beauty! Oh wait, i think it's a male cat.
Waiting at the bus bay, patiently (so hot, so hot, so hot)!
You can actually have a personalized tour for your family with the horse-drawn carriage. Pricing was definitely more expensive than the bus tour but it would be a novel experience.
From the reviews i read somewhere, the only problem is that the person driving you around may not be able to communicate well in English and hence, might not be able to answer many of your questions.
Boarding the bus!
Aside from the bus driver, there's also an attached guide who would share with you nuggets of information about the farm. As you can see, the refurbished bus likely hailed from the period when my parents are school-going kids and there's no air-conditioning!
Trudging on the bumpy dirt path and driving past plantations that stretched as far as the eyes can see, there's no high rise buildings, no modern structures and i thought i have returned back to the time when i was living in nee soon village.
Disused bas sekolah which means school bus in Malay. Maybe the kind of bus would change when i next visit UK Farm. The style is more the kind from my generation that doesn't come with air-conditioner.
Disembarking from the back!
Goat pens; in case you are unaware, UK Farm is the largest goat and sheep farm in Malaysia and covers over 100 acres in land. How big is 1 acre? It's about 4046.86 square meters.
Directional signage.
First Stop - Feed processing factory where grass are blended and added with vitamins and minerals. Simple setup without any action; didn't quite interest the hyperactive me.
Second Stop - Goat pens! The start of feeding where you can hold out the stalks of hay for the goats to munch on and let the baby goats latch onto a milk bottle! Best of all, you can even carry a baby goat for photo taking! Click here for the pictures!
Walking on foot to the goat milk processing centre.
Remember the grass i mentioned earlier that would be processed into goat feed? The above picture is the big patch of grass that would eventually be ground into feed.
Stop Three - the spacious goat milk processing centre. Now, this isn't new to me as there's a similar, albeit smaller, one in Singapore at Hay Dairies Goat Farm.
Of course, a big placeboard touting the nutritional benefits of drinking goat's milk and eating mutton. For the former, it's known for its high digestibility, multi-functional usage and is recognised as the king of milk.
I am too lazy to summarize; so do refer to the above. :)
The milking arena; a scene that can also be seen at Hay Dairies Goat Farm. As i have seen it before back then, i knew exactly what to expect.
Steps as follows; get the goats to the area, lock their heads so that they can't move much, disinfect the teats, squeeze the teats to check if there's any blood, plug in the milking device if there's no blood, start the pumping, remove the device and disinfect the teats again before releasing the goats back to their pens.
Once that's done, it's rest and relax time where you can also sample goat's milk in four flavours; original, chocolate, strawberry and yogurt!
Toasting time!
In addition to bottles of goat milk, you can also purchase goat milk ice cream, goat milk coffee, goat milk shampoo, goat milk body wash, goat milk lotion etc!
Do you know that fresh goat milk cannot be drunk? To make it drinkable, the factory has to heat it at 69 degrees celcius!
Ample seats to rest while waiting for the rest to finish their purchases. It was airy but we were hoping for some rain to reduce the temperature and humidity.
A touch of Singapore in UK Farm; Ngee Ann polytechnic actually has a contract with the farm to provide a veterinary bioscience educational trip.
Recycle your bottles!
Grass that was already cut and ready for the next step of processing before they are delivered to the goat pens as food. Honestly, you see more lands reserved for the grass than for the goats.
Boarding the bus again!
Stop Four - duck farm where you can feed them using the pack of feed that was included as part of the tour. I actually combined all the animal feeding into one post and you may click here for the pictures.
On the bus again!
Stop Five - chicken farm; click here for more pictures! You can actually buy the chicken or duck from the farm; be it alive or dead, feathered or not.
Picture of a grass cutter doing his work! It has to be hard work in such hot weather and to prevent sunburn, the grass cutters have to be covered up; hence adding to the heat.
Boarding the bus again.
Scene along the way; at this point, i think we were less enthusiastic as the heat was getting to us. However, i still think it was a pretty good tour and i kept getting reminded of my kampong days! Bet my parents would enjoy the tour, while complaining about the heat!
Stop Six - Ostrich Park; it's more than just for ostriches as i can see deer and also a separate place for rabbits! Again, you can do feeding for the ostriches and deer. For the rabbits, you have to pay separately but it's worth it as they were so cute and docile. Check out my post on the rabbitshere.
She was being particularly flower-addicted that day.
Stop Seven - visit to the one-man jakun village where you can see a one-man performance and climb the tree hour. Check out my post here for more information and photographs.
Random again.
Stop Eight - Tropical Arcade; a rest stop that's necessary as we were totally parched and facing heat exhaustion. We need water and we need the shade!
You can get coconut juice and passionfruit juice but as we had already tried both during lunch (and weren't impressed), we skipped and bought chilled bottled water instead.
Fruits harvested from the farm were also available for sale.
My friend, Andrew, couldn't resist and bought us ice cream instead. Not just any ice cream of course; it's made of goat milk! As usual, i am not as adventurous but since he has already purchased, we might as well gave it a try!
Didn't quite like my strawberry milk as i can still taste the goat's smell.... Sweet but wasn't as milky as i would like it to be.
In our visit, we actually chanced upon the above notice on quite a number of locations and only read through at this rest stop. Very meaningful content, especially for those with elderly parents. Do read the content (i already translated to English) here if you are interested.
Couldn't wait to board the bus!
But it had just left without us, leaving us caked in the trail of dirt and dust. Okay lah, i am exaggerating here as the rest of our tour mates were still at the tropical arcade and that included the guide too.
Stop Nine - we were eventually asked to wait at the nursery which, in reality, was nothing much with just a fridge to get some fresh vegetables.
Other pictures taken at the boring nursery.
On the bus again and on the way back to the starting point! The bus drove past the goat / sheep grazing land. As weather was too hot, they were just huddled tightly under the shade.
I saw horses too!
Horse riding was available at RM 15.90 a person. The ride was pretty short at about 5-7 minutes and as usual, i am not particularly keen in such activities. However, i will take if it is free.
In all, i enjoyed the tour and thought it would be an educational trip for kids. For the older generation like my parents who had lived in the village, it's a walk down memory lane. Major complaint was the heat and to address it, bring along a fan (mist, electronic, whatever) and drink plenty of water!
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Location
Projek Pertanian Moden Kluang,,
KM13 Jalan Batu Pahat, Kluang, 8,
86000 Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
(about a 20-minute drive from main road)
Google Map
Search under Day One for UK Farm
Farm Map
As above.
Website
Pricing of Tour Package
Bus Tour Package - RM 47.70 a person.
Additional Information
Prefer to stay in the farm? You can choose from chalet, dormitory or camping package. For more information, check out the website here.
For the self drive itinerary of my two days, one night trip to Kluang, the center of Johor state in Malaysia, click here.