Bring Children To Visit An Animal Farm In Singapore

Bringing Children To Visit An Animal Farm In Singapore

My eldest child had recommended me to her favourite animal farm in Singapore after an educational school outing. As I was curious about the existence of such a farm on an island as highly urbanized as Singapore, and skeptical about the fun quotient of a trip to a farm, I decided to see it for myself. So there I was with the entire family at Hay Diaries, situated at Lim Chu Kang Agrotech Park Lane 4 in Singapore's Kranji district on a weekend afternoon.

This small but neat farm with a goat population of about 1000 was well maintained. The colourful flowers surrounding 3 goat sculptures gave pleasant first impressions to visitors who arrive between 9am and 4pm. The main feature of attraction here was undoubtedly the goats themselves. The class of goats kept here were known as Diary Goats. These were prized for their milk and not their meat. The five types of Diary Goats were Alpine, Nubian, Saanen, Toggenburg and La Mancha, each with different physical characteristics. Ranging in ages, sizes and weights, they were kept in 3m by 3m size steel enclosures in a barn separated by a long narrow corridor.

Children and the young at heart will find this farm to their immense liking. Opportunities to feed the goats, pet their coarse backs and snap close-up photos with them abound. Due to their lively and sociable nature, it is easy to be seduced by these creatures and to loose track of your time spent there with goats . In the mornings, there are milk extraction demonstrations to educate children deprived of interaction with farm animals due to the limitation of high-rise living. At the small gift shop, bottled goat milk which tastes more refined than cow's milk, is available for consumption and purchase.

As I walked along the corridor, tongues stretched out in a sign of greed as visitors dangled food to attract them. While the air was fragrant with goat smell, the set-up of the barn allowed ventilation with the aid of multiple fans hung from the barn roof. Packets of hay were available for purchase to hand feed the goats. Feeding goats felt strangely therapeutic and generated amusement as the goats contorted their mouths and rotated their necks to grab a bite or two. A few highly skilled goats even performed acrobatic feats to elevate their bodies for better ingestion.

If you are not squeamish to touch goats or be nibbled by them, bring the family to interact with these adorable farm animals. Using a phrase from George Orwell's critically acclaimed Animal Farm, I would summarise an outing here as: “Two legs good, four legs better!”

Take care and be happy.