Adrian Kelly and Peter Bultitude breed pygmy goats at Woodbridge
Self-described city-slickers who moved to the country a decade ago cycled through several animals before settling on these tiny “little Houdinis” for their hobby farm.
Tasmania
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Self-described city-slickers Adrian Kelly and Peter Bultitude bought a “piece of dirt” at Woodbridge ten years ago with the dream to run miniature cows on a hobby farm.
“That didn’t go quite so well because the only thing that was miniature was their legs, so they still ate just as much as a normal cow,” Mr Kelly said.
The couple then turned their attention to sheep, which were “boring”, before settling on breeding pygmy goats about six years ago.
“We sell a lot of them to families with children because they are great as pets,” Mr Kelly said.
“Not much goes wrong with them, unlike other animals,” he said, adding that because goats are herd animals, they are sold at least in pairs.
They also sell some of their females to other breeders across the country.
Mr Kelly said as two working professionals who used to live in Sandy Bay, learning to breed the goats involved a lot of trial and error.
“But we are lucky because there are lots of good breeders in Tasmania and some good clubs, so if you get stuck you can always ring someone else and get some good advice”
Mr Kelly and Mr Bultitude have tried to get a new, smaller, buck each year and bred the pygmy gene into the goats. Mr Kelly said they have about 30 goats all up on the property at one time, as maintaining more toenails than that becomes a full-time job.
He said the baby goats are “clever” and up on their feet looking for their mum’s teat within 15 minutes of being born.
And each has a unique personality, like a dog.
A goat averages two kids per litter, and they are born weighing about 1kg and about 15cm in height.
Mr Kelly said it was good that the goats mainly have twins, because if only one baby is born it can get quite fat.
He tells potential goat owners they really only need two things: a good shelter, such as a large dog kennel, and fences to keep the “little Houdinis” in.
“If they can find a little hole somewhere to squeeze through, they will find it,” Mr Kelly said.
Originally published as Adrian Kelly and Peter Bultitude breed pygmy goats at Woodbridge
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