For our family’s first rail outing in Malaysia, we chose Johor’s Kluang as our stop, having decided to make a trip to one of its farms. There were 3 options for us to choose from: Zenxin Organic Farm, Koref Rice Farm and UK Farm. Knowing our little ones’ love for interaction with animals, we eventually chose to visit the UK Farm.
From Kluang train station, we hailed a Grab Car to the farm. Unfortunately, the driver was not familiar with the route to the UK Farm. He made a wrong turn into a long stretch of country road and we ended up wasting around 40min because of that. Thankfully, we managed to get to the farm without a hiccup after that.
The UK Farm is part of UK Agro Resort within Kluang Modern Agriculture Project zone. From information available on its official website, we gathered that it is Malaysia’s largest goat and sheep farm with 100 acres of land for 4000 sheep. There are on-site accommodation available too.
Image credit: Chongkian
This was the mini-bus for their 2-3 hours farm tour.
It would have been a more economical choice compared to the horse carting farm tour. Charges for the mini bus farm tour was at RM47.70/adult and RM37.10/child (age 3-12 years old). The horse carting farm tour, on the other hand, was charged at RM198.80(low season) and RM254.40 (peak season) for 4 person. We were charged peak season rate on a Singapore public holiday but working weekday in Malaysia. So do note this peak season definition of theirs.
In view of our tight schedule (having to catch a train back), we wanted more flexibility than following a tour guide and big group around. So we chose to take their small-group horse cart tour. It was distressing though to watch the horse struggled at times under the weight of the loaded cart.
Included in the tour fees were pre-packed animals feeds, a voucher for bottled milk and goat milk sampling. Each of us got a pack of dried grass for the goats, a pack of corn feed for the ducks, chickens, ostriches and deers and a bottle of milk for the kids.
First we visited the goat pen. We were greeted by an overpowering goaty scent. The goat pen is elevated above ground and we could see goat droppings covering the ground below through the wooden planks. Here, we fed the adult goats with milk while the kids enjoyed bottled milk.
Visitors got to cuddle a little kid too. DL and CL were apprehensive at first. But after stroking the tame little kid for a while, they worked up their courage to carry it. It eventually turned out to be DL’s favourite moment of the trip.
Feeding the ducks. This proved to be interesting. We stood on an elevated platform and fed the ducks in the ponds by pouring the corn feed down 3 pipes.
Feeding the chickens. We fed them by throwing the corn feed into the cages. Initially we tried feeding them with corn feed on our palms, but in their eagerness, one of them pecked CL’s hands a little too hard. That was what she proclaimed as the worst moment of the trip.
Feeding the deers. DL described the deers ate by sticking out their tongue to lick the food from his hand and putting it back to its mouth.
Feeding the ostriches. The little ones felt intimidated by the big birds so Mummy fed them instead. I could feel the ostriches’ beaks went over my hand as they gulped the food from my palm. The swift but gentle movement felt like something scratching against my hand.
Feeding the rabbits. Rabbit feed were sold separately for RM3 per pack. Here we got to pet the furry little cuties as we fed them.
In between the animal feeding activities, we were brought to a goat milk processing centre where we sampled small cups of goat milk in original, chocolate and yogurt flavour. In the mean time, there was some goat milk sales talk going on, so we did not stay here for long.
The second last stop was Jakun village. The Jakuns are an ethnic group of the Orang Asli or indigenous people of the Malay Peninsula. Here, we climbed up a tree house, watched a demonstration of how they catch animals and even watched the lone performer did a traditional dance.
We believed that choosing a ‘private’ farm tour was one of the best decisions we made for the trip. Instead of being herded around, we had complete control of the time we wanted to spend at each attraction. This was in contrast with what we saw of the mini-bus group in front of us. The visitors were being herded around with what we thought barely sufficient time at each animal activity. The downside was that the mini-bus tour came with a tour guide but ours did not. Both horse cart drivers we had were friendly and helpful but due to language barrier, we did not get much of what they tried to explain.
As with all other farm tours we had, the kids want to be back again.
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Useful information
Address: Projek Pertanian Moden Kluang, KM13 Jalan Batu Pahat, Kluang, 8, 86000 Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
Telephone: +60 7-759 5018
Official Website:: UK Farm
