Meat and Livestock Australia

52 Marketing Big Ampi Rangeland Goats aim to provide a high quality, consistent product fit for the domestic market. They believe this to be best achieved with a 15 kg carcass from an eight month old goat. Within the domestic market, a few hundred goats are supplied to two different buyers every two to three weeks. A small number of goats are also live exported, while the vast majority are consigned to abattoirs to be exported as a frozen carcass. Across these sale destinations, only a small premium is received in some domestic markets. This is a point of concern for Big Ampi as they consistently produce a product suitable for higher end, primal cut type markets. Going forward, they intend to address this via a number of avenues. Initially, is to create the scale that allows them to be a year-round supplier of domestic quality goatmeat. This will both provide the business with a supply advantage, and also contribute to ensuring the broader domestic market is met by the quality of product consumers’ desire. Big Ampi also intend to further explore the possibilities of direct marketing. This would allow a premium product to be promoted in order to attract a premium price. They feel that their business is well positioned to market itself within the ‘clean-green’, ‘free range’ type arena. This is underpinned by the extensive, native pasture based system on which they operate. At present, Big Ampi retain most of their breeding stock in order to build numbers as developments are completed. However they are open to selling surplus breeding stock to other producers where the opportunity exists. Land management When the decision was made to transition into goats, a literature review was undertaken to establish a dry sheep equivalent (DSE ) rating for all stock classes. This was then matched to the historical stocking capacity of the property to identify a benchmark goat stocking rate. In light of this, it is now believed that due to the high browse content of a goat’s diet, they place less pressure on pasture species than an equivalent Merino stocking rate. Stock are rotated between paddocks in response to visually assessed feed availability and stock condition. Spatial data is also used to assess ground cover across the two properties over time. Spatial data does indicate an increase in groundcover in some of the earliest paddocks fenced to hinge-joint and stocked with goats. However it is acknowledged that it is too soon to identify long term impacts on the landscape. Feed samples and photo points are currently taken seasonally which will also provide valuable insight into changes in landscape and vegetation health over time. It is hoped that goats will play a positive role in controlling Invasive Native Scrub (INS). Hopbush ( Dodonea spp .) on Big Ampi is slowly being eaten and knocked down by goats. This requires large rangeland bucks to be most effective. On Mt Hope, White Cypres Pine ( Callitris spp .) and other INS species are being mechanically controlled under a Property Vegetation Plan (PVP) with hopes that goats will control regrowth. Affected country is pulled and then stick raked. Spatial data comparing before and after treatment shows an increase in useable biomass and ground cover. In the context of land management, grazing pressure from kangaroos is also raised as a major challenge. Big Ampi estimate that 30 per cent of their production potential is lost to kangaroos on country that is not tightly fenced and with control of the waters. This led them to investigate employing a full time commercial kangaroo harvester. However it was deemed not possible to break even at prices below 95c/kg. While damage mitigation permits provide an avenue for kangaroo control, it is not felt that they are sufficient to deal with the scale of problem at hand. Big Ampi are trialing a range of non-lethal control methods such as fencing and water point control. They also feel there is merit in some form of sensory deterrent being identified which could be laid on fence lines to prevent digging. Big Ampi composite goat carcass on left, rangeland wild harvested goat carcass on right