Meat and Livestock Australia

32 Tindarey Station CASE STUDY Producer: • Keith and Robin Francisco Property: • Tindarey Station , 50 km north of Cobar • Darling Downs Station, 50 km north of Cobar Area: • Tindarey 15,891 ha • Darling Downs 14,789 ha Rainfall (avg/a): • 300 mm Enterprise: • Self replacing rangeland goats and growing out underweight goats sold to local depots. Key messages • Investment in good quality infrastructure such as fencing and yards gives long term benefits. • Worms can cause production losses outside of wet years. • High weight gains can be achieved with young goats, particularly on improved pastures. Looking back Keith has owned and managed Tindarey since 1962, originally running a successful Merino enterprise while also working off farm. However in 1985, a portion of the property was burnt out by a large bushfire, which persuaded Keith to trial a different enterprise. As rangeland goats were present on Tindarey, and mohair was a profitable industry at the time, Keith re-fenced with hinge-joint and began trapping goats to be joined to Angora bucks. Soon after, the mohair market collapsed and Keith decided to focus on meat goats and developing the rest of his property for this purpose. During these early years Keith also traded as a depot, trucking goats to the Bourke abattoirs. When the abattoirs shut in the late 1980’s, Keith returned to a solely breeding and growing enterprise. In the years following Keith’s conversion into goats, he has fenced Tindarey to a standard capable of controlling goats, and developed some of the more arable areas with forage crops (400 ha). A growing emphasis has also been placed on regeneration and improvement of the country through the resting of paddocks and thinning of invasive native scrub (INS). With the majority of infrastructure on Tindarey completed to a desired standard for some time, Keith’s business has grown into a productive, low input enterprise.