Meat and Livestock Australia

Rangeland goat production inWestern NSW: Where are they now? 31 Marketing In the past, goats have been sold into a number of markets in order to capitalise on any available premium. This included domestically killed goats for export, domestic trade goats and small consignments of live export breeding stock. Additional to this, both properties were ACO (Australian Certified Organic) and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) organically certified. While this was originally in place for their Damara enterprise, efforts were made to market goats as organic, with little success greater than individuals wanting to purchase a single carcass. Eventually the decision was made to surrender their organic status due to the ongoing costs of accreditation and the need to use the otherwise prohibited 1080 poison to control wild dogs. In hindsight, Randall feels that consumers purchasing goat and consumers purchasing organic certified products rarely overlap, meaning they were aiming at a very limited target market. As an extensive goat enterprise, he needs to produce a bulk product in order to offset overheads and reduce transport costs. In order to do so, goats produced in western NSW largely become a commodity product rather than something with a niche, targeted market. Randall doesn’t see a time in the foreseeable future where there will be a domestic organic goat market of sufficient scale for involvement of rangeland producers. Despite this evolution in the strategic direction of the business, the greatest factor causing change in the markets being sold to is the high prices being received for goats. As Australian goat prices increased, live export buyers began sourcing animals from elsewhere, while in Australia the premiums received for providing domestic trade goats did not increase at the same rate as the general market. This resulted in producers opting to sell more animals to the less picky export meat processors. As a result, 100 per cent of goats have been sold directly to abattoirs for export for the past three years. Land management Stocking rates are managed by Randall in response to visual assessment of feed on offer and stock condition. When it is decided that stock numbers need to be reduced they are generally halved. Paddocks are rotated between grazed and rested, as well as between stock type (goats, sheep), with a number of paddocks having currently been rested for three years. In this time there has been a regeneration of both pasture and browse species. While both goats and Dorpers will graze browse species, they don’t eat turpentine, resulting in it getting overly thick in places. Randall does not treat turpentine on a paddock scale but will poison plants around infrastructure and holding paddocks. Looking forward Future plans for Randall largely involve continuing along the same trajectory he is on. Continual improvement of efficiencies is always a priority. One particular avenue he intends to pursue is increasing dressing percentage. Installation of telemetry systems would also allow for increased labor efficiencies through time saved checking waters. Industry direction Randall is very positive about goats as a managed enterprise and the global need for protein providing market opportunity. Some concern is expressed over the sustainability of the industry and its ability to meet demand while it is based primarily on opportunistic harvesting. With abattoirs continuing to lower minimum carcass weights (now eight kg) Randall feels there is a risk of breeding does being over-harvested. Randall feels continued movement into managed goats is positive for the quality of animals being produced and necessary for the industry to increase sustainability and consistency of supply. However he also notes the huge genetic resource rangeland populations provide. This is of great value to the industry. The question of how this resource is best utilised and preserved as the industry develops is not something Randall feels he has the answer to. However the value of the rangeland goats in the continued evolution of his cross bred goats is well acknowledged. Attention is also drawn to the risk over-regulation has on a low cost commodity based industry. The possibility of changes to NLIS tagging requirements is something that he feels would particularly threaten the profitability of producers. Eight-line hinge-joint fence on Tasman Station