When it comes to goat farming, not everyone from big cities can do it quite like Lydia Jominin. Also known as Datin Kambeng (because she’s famous on Facebook for goat farming!), she is a successful entrepreneur with the support of her husband, Tuan Sahar Sahad.
Together, they are blessed with two sons—Muhammad Ayden Husain and Muhammad Aaron Husaini. After spending a total of 18 years living in Kuala Lumpur, she decided to relocate to her quiet hometown of Kunak, Sabah, to start a business in goat farming.
It may not be a relatively easy decision to start this kind of business but Lydia did it successfully. Lydia shares exclusively with Motherhood on her experience in running a goat farm in Kunak as a wife and mum:
It has been over 18 years of me living in the big city of Selangor. I got married and became a wife, then a mum to two beautiful boys: Ayden, (now 6 years old) and Aaron (now 4 years old). Initially, we lived in the city, just like anyone else might.
Back then, we hardly got the chance to enjoy ourselves in an open aired space or in a natural environment. I never expected that someday I would bring my family back here to my hometown of Kunak (a district in Tawau division), a place where I grew up.
Everything in the city we were living in was so expensive, and for a heavy price tag, you could get a ‘small’ confined area for a family of four. In 2020, my boys (my husband and sons) and I moved back to my hometown due to my dad’s illness. Both of my sons started their schooling in this small town where everything is relatively calm and peaceful, surrounded mostly by palm oil trees and its plantations.
There is a huge difference here compared to what my sons had been experiencing in Selangor. Both my parents were small-scaled palm oil farmers. The only piece of land that we have was underutilised.
After some thoughts and considerations, my husband and I decided that goat farming is a good integration to the piece of land that my parents have had in operations. So we started to build the landscape for it in January 2021. After a lot of planning and development, we now have 300 goats on our farm, and its population for producing and supplying only gets better.
My two sons are coping and adapting to all the changes in their lifestyle and surroundings relatively well. And everything around me is even better with my husband’s unconditional love and support for these changes after going back to where I am from.
I try my best not to think of all the ‘whys’ my sons are not resisting to the new lifestyle changes that we are currently living in. I concluded that it comes from my husband and I, how we taught and raised them. I’m thankful for them because when they were born, both of them can adapt to our lifestyle and schedule. We certainly do not force feed them into this.
Both of my sons will always follow my husband and I wherever we go or do – almost 95% of the time. This goat farming business allows them to have a better understanding of nature and going back to basics of how I (and I’m certain for most mummies too) used to live our lives before the gadget era. And also how we live our lives so differently from those living in the city. It kinda makes you wonder and be more grateful, too.
My husband and I are partners in real life and business. Our corporation is built with the intention to allow us as parents to fully take care of our children, and raise them by ourselves. As both consultants and business owners, we take turns to take care of them. If the situation doesn’t permit us to bring along our children, then we would ask my mother to help babysit them temporarily.
When we moved both our location and business focus to goat farming, the boys didn’t feel much of a difference as their characters and personalities are pretty much the same.
In terms of raising them here in Kunak, I see some positivity in both their mental and physical development. Both their hard skills and soft skills are also shaping up well. And they learn about responsibilities at an early age from helping us out in the barn. They learn how to take care of animals, providing food and water and cleaning up. They really understand the basic needs of taking care of livestock farm animals, specifically these goats.
My two sons’ minds are much more focused these days when they are studying. This is most likely due to their stress-free environment compared to when we were in Selangor. A fresh-air livelihood and constant changes lead to a healthier lifestyle in this small hometown too. They go to school in the mornings, then they come home to play and help out in the barn in the evenings.
I let them involve themselves in these healthy changes as much as they would like to and let them experiment with their surroundings. I let them play with dirt, hike in the ‘kebun’, and play with the goats most of the time. As long as their insecurities are being taken care of, I will let them experience these moments.
Now, both Ayden and Aaron have adapted and are enjoying their magnificent lives as goat breeders alongside their parents. We hope that the legacy that my husband and I created will be passed on successfully to them in the future. Hence, the brand we created is named Ladang Ternak AA – represented by their first names: Ayden and Aaron.
My hope as a mother is for both of them to grow up and be responsible men who would help others in need. I will continue to pray that both of them are blessed with a good heart and genuinely care about their surroundings and to be forever grateful for what they have.
Lydia,
A mother and entrepreneur.
For more insightful stories and fun recipes, stay tuned to Motherhood Story!