Meat and Livestock Australia

Rangeland goat production inWestern NSW: Where are they now? 45 Husbandry Under current production methods, no husbandry practices are carried out on goats. Once trapped or mustered, rangeland goats are trucked straight off the property if there are sufficient numbers and feed is limiting. Otherwise, they are released in hinge-joint paddocks to be sold at a later time. At this point, little consideration is given to selection of breeding animals to be kept. By having multiple yards and traps located around the property allows goats to be trucked to paddocks in order to minimise the stress placed on the animals by walking them. Rick believes that goats reproduce and gain weight more efficiently in a wild state than they do behind wire. For this reason he times trapping and mustering events around flushes of kids having already reached a reasonable weight. Goat paddocks are also kept relatively large in order to not have semi-managed goats feeling too restricted. Being an animal that has evolved in the wild, Rick doesn’t feel they respond well to management. One factor that that has become a serious concern for the Howard’s over the last four years is the growing predation risk from wild dogs. They have recently joined a coordinated baiting group which baits for dogs twice a year, while also trapping and shooting at all times. When considering control methods going forward, Rick expresses his preference for collective approaches such as broad-scale coordinated baiting and the maintenance of the border fence. While he can see the reasoning behind people’s decisions to pursue property or cluster scale exclusion fencing, he feels broader scale options should be prioritised from a region and industry perspective. Breeding When Rick and Floss first began considering goats as a stand-alone enterprise, they had some ideas about breeding a more ‘domestic’ goat from rangeland animals. They felt that selecting for a short haired, white goat that was polled and exhibited superior reproductive and weight gain traits would create a desirable line of animals. However as there was no premium being paid for superior animals, they felt they were better off continuing along the path of harvesting and semi- managing rangeland goats. While breeding does occur within their goat paddocks, this is not at all managed. Goats are sold and retained based purely on weight with no priority given to developing a dedicated breeding herd. Going forward however, the Howard’s imagine that as their semi-managed goat herd increases they will begin placing more emphasis on breeding and selection. This would not involve managed joining’s but selection of both bucks and does that exhibit superior phenotypic and production traits. The move from a goat enterprise mostly reliant on harvesting, to one reliant on breeding, is seen by Floss and Rick as a necessity to ensure supply. As the price of goats has risen there has been increasing pressure on wild populations which they expect will continue. They feel that reductions in minimum carcass weights have also resulted in a greater portion of breeding animals being removed from the rangeland population. This has further reduced population resilience to over-harvesting. Trap yards with holding yards, working yard and loading race