Large interest on goat production at LLS seminar at Bourke

Guests at the LLS goat seminar in Bourke were able to try a myriad of goat dishes including goat tacos, goat steaks and goat bruschetta from Bourke's Morrall's Bakery.

Keeping a close eye on the quality, especially of the udders, on maiden does was a big part of breeding the best goat herds, a Local Land Services (LLS) seminar was told at Bourke.

Almost 100 interested farmers gathered at Bourke for the seminar with key goat industry experts speaking, with interest from Leeton to Tamworth. They later toured the goat abattoir at Bourke that is set to shortly reopen.

With restocker cattle prices hitting unbelievable heights, many graziers were turning to goats as an affordable option to get into livestock or add to the mix of their current grazing stock.

Gemma Turnbull, Western LLS team leader (agriculture), said goats were offering a huge chance for graziers to mix up the livestock they carried on farm. Many of those with rangeland goats on their property hoped to do it in a more managed way, she said.

Goat genetics knowledge was improving all the time, and rangeland goats offered a unique chance to enhance stock quality. There was still a long way to go to understand the best quality of bucks.

NSW Department of Primary Industries animal geneticist Tom Granleese was one of the speakers at the seminar as well as a goat specialist from the MLA.

Also read: Bourke abattoir set for mid-year re-opening after long wait

The seminar heard reproduction rates in maiden goats was a big issue and there was a wide difference in quality of maidens. Some had very low reproduction rates, a recent study of rangeland goats found. Getting genetic information on them was difficult. One of the best things for producers to do was to cull those maidens with bad udders.

"There simply aren't a lot of breeding values with goats so a lot of it is still sight-based," Ms Turnbull said.

"But we are in a good position to look at the genetic diversity of rangeland goats to see where the best genetics are. We can make some real progress there."

She said goats were becoming a real option for people in western areas because of the high cost of cattle.

"People who have been harvesting goats on the side are looking to move into a more fully managed enterprise. There are consistent good prices and this type of stock is well adapted to our region.

"Also with sheep, many producers are having trouble getting shearers, so goats can be a viable alternative."

Producers also need to look at their current infrastructure. It was not suitable to run goats through old sheep yards. "There needs to be a bit more thought with goats on how they run and flow," she said.

Existing scanning crates for sheep may also not be suitable for goats.

The interest in the seminar from all over NSW, showed how much goats were moving in on some areas not normally associated with goat production.

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