Meat and Livestock Australia

38 Property and business development Wallangarra is managed as a single property, with Tony being the primary labour unit. Tony’s grandson Conrad also works in the business. In the past Conrad worked on Wallangarra on a full time basis however he now shares his time evenly between work at Wallangarra and Hay. In moving into goats, Tony considers adequate fencing as critical. It ensures stock are held on the property and allows them to be moved effectively. Six line hinge-joint is the most commonly used fence type on Wallangarra, with much of it fitted to existing plain wire fences. Over 10 years, Tony re-fenced the whole property with approximately 200 km of hinge-joint fencing. This was completed in around 2005. Tony feels the six wire hinge-joint has been sufficient and continues to do the job. By being a bit shorter it also allows kangaroos to jump over it easily rather than getting caught and wrecking the fence. He does however acknowledge that once goats are bred behind wire they are far easier to control. While his managed goats are easily retained by current fencing, incursions from rangeland goats are common. In the past Tony has also trialed electric fencing which he says can effectively control goats as long as they have first been educated in respecting them. Kangaroos also caused problems by either physically wrecking the fence or causing it to short out. The majority of stock water on Wallangarra is supplied by ground tanks with some pipelines feeding troughs. Over the past five years, the only major infrastructure changes have been the establishment of more stock yards. Tony has gone from three sets of steel yards to nine, giving all paddocks close access to yards. This reduces the need for walking stock and also facilitates the easy removal of rangeland goats from paddocks. Scales are also located in the main yards which allows smaller animals to be weighed prior to sale to ensure they meet requirements. Livestock In an average season, Tony runs approximately 5,000 does and 2,000 Dorper ewes. He sells around 3,500 in an average year and up to 6,000 goats in a good year, but notes that he doesn’t keep great records on numbers. Goats are sold at four to five months of age, often coming straight off their mother. Tony points out that goats need to be sold as young as possible in order to allow room for young kids. At this age, goats weigh up to 33 kg liveweight and yield around 49 per cent. Over the last five years, Tony has not seen a great change in the level of production achieved on Wallangarra outside of seasonal effects. Stock yards built throughout property for ease of access Six-line hinge-joint fence with barb