Meat and Livestock Australia

37 Wallangarra Station CASE STUDY Producer: • Tony and Heather McGinty Property: • Wallangarra Station, 50 km north east of Ivanhoe. Area: • 30,348 ha Rainfall (avg/a): • 300 mm Enterprise: • Self replacing Red Boer composite goats and Dorper sheep Key messages • Red Boer goats provide an alternative to traditional white-bodied Boers. • Goats are a hardy, highly adaptable animal but they must be allowed the freedom to express those traits. • By introducing purchased bucks at a young age increases their ability to adapt and survive in the new environment. Looking back The year 2019 will mark 100 years of McGinty family ownership and management of Wallangarra Station. Tony has been on the property his entire life. In keeping with the greater pastoral zone of NSW, Wallangarra initially supported a Merino enterprise. It was not until 1985 that Tony made the decision to move away from wool, during the period in which the market collapsed under the reserve price scheme. With rangeland goats already on Wallangarra, Tony witnessed how well they were adapted to the environment and believed there was a profitable future in the goat industry. At this early point in his transition out of wool, Tony introduced cashmere goats. After persisting for eight years, he then decided he was better off focusing on meat goats. This was due to the difficulties posed by vegetable matter, the small fibre cut achieved and the inability to run cashmere goats as a dual purpose breed. From the early 1990’s onwards, Tony has focused on breeding a superior meat goat using the well adapted rangeland goat and the carcass traits of Boer goats. This resulted in a focus on Red Boers and registration of the ‘Even Better Reds’ stud in 2003. The direction of Tony’s business has continued along these lines, with more subtle changes to breeding objectives and target markets adapted along the way. After many years of breeding, Tony is well known for producing quality Red Boer goats that are well adapted to the rangelands.