Meat and Livestock Australia

44 Another area Rick is seriously considering investment is in remote water monitoring technology. He sees this as having great potential to reduce the time and maintenance costs associated with regularly checking waters. At this point, a system has not yet been found that ‘ticks all the boxes’ for Rick. He wants something that sends visual footage, is reliable and is scalable. With the development of species recognition technology, Rick also sees huge potential in using remote cameras to potentially exclude non-domestic stock from water. In his opinion, this would provide an alternative to the costly and high maintenance exclusion fencing being installed by producers as a means of controlling predatory pests and total grazing pressure. Livestock In the late 1990’s when goats only made up one or two per cent of total income from Moonavale, they were being opportunistically mustered primarily as a means of reducing grazing pressure. During this time the goat industry as a whole was largely reliant on opportunistic trapping and mustering of rangeland populations. This resulted in substantial price swings, with lows over summer when successful trapping resulted in a large supply, and highs over winter when supply was limited. The establishment of a goat paddock in 2005 allowed goat sales to be timed to market peaks, as goats could be held following capture. This system continued effectively for some years, but with the growing value of goats a second paddock was established to increase capacity. At this time the seasonal price differences of goats was also declining as the industry continued to mature. Goat paddocks are now used to hold semi-managed herds and allow captured goats to be aggregated before trucking. This ensures freight efficiencies are maximised. In recent years, goat sales from Moonavale generally sit around 2,500 head p.a. This figure is made up from goats bred within semi-managed paddocks as well as those trapped across the property. The break up between these sources is approximately 20 per cent and 80 per cent respectively. Depending on season and rangeland goat movement, annual sale figures can increase to around 6,000. These additional numbers are primarily a result of mustering an extension block at the northern end of Moonavale. Due to its location, geography and natural waters, it can attract substantial numbers of goats. As the Howard’s work to increase the portion of their business made up by goats, they hope to ultimately be turning off up to 3,500 goats each year. Under this system, they anticipate a far greater proportion of goats will be bred behind wire rather than being mustered or trapped from the wild. Recently installed solar bore Rangeland goats leaving water