CONTINUING drought conditions of the past decade have resulted in an increasing number of Western Division landholders overlook the stigma traditionally associated with an animal that takes most seasonal conditions in its stride and proves a handy source of cash in tight years.
Rangeland goats - once derided and considered a pest - are now proving an increasingly profitable commodity off the back of rising world demand for goat meat.
The goats have proven so profitable, Dan and Sally Muenster, "Congarrara", Enngonia, have made them the focus of their enterprise.
The Muensters bought the 30,700 hectare "Congarrara", located about 100 kilometres north of Bourke, in 2009 and have established a successful and innovative goat trading business.
Congarrara Goat Traders sends regular B-double loads of goats for processing in Melbourne, drawn from the home property and from other properties in the region.
Mr Muenster estimates the goat business is growing by a "phenomenal rate" of 30 to 50 per cent annually and it has easily eclipsed their beef cattle in profits and is even giving their sheep a run for their money.
But it's not just the Muensters making money - an increasing number of landholders in the region are also sharing in the spoils of the strong demand for goat meat.
This week The Land reported average over-the-hooks (OTH) prices for export goats ranged from $3.61 a kilogram (carcase weight) to $3.67/kg
"Demand is outstripping supply at present - I've never seen goat prices higher than OTH mutton prices," Mr Muenster said.
"Prices quoted in The Land lately have been up to $1/kg higher than mutton.
"Traditionally it's the other way around - we'd normally expect export goat prices to sit about the bottom end of the mutton job, but this year we've seen goat meat prices up to $3.80/kg."
When the Muensters took over "Congarrara" - which is mostly scrubby and covered by a lot of woody weed but also contains grassland areas of buffel, neverfail, Mitchell and wire grass - they expected to run a traditional sheep and cattle enterprise as the previous owner did.
They took the existing Wiltipoll flock and bred it up using White Dorper rams and introduced Braham-cross females and Angus and Charolais bulls to the herd to produce a marketable, store-condition animal.
Under good seasonal conditions the Muensters run up to 5000 ewes (this has been reduced to 2000 under the present drought conditions) and about 700 breeders (currently sitting at 300 head).
The Muensters soon found themselves harvesting rangeland goats and quickly saw the potential of the resource which came with the property.
"We'll always keep some sheep and cattle for diversification, but that said, we've made no money out of cattle for the past three years - in fact they've cost money to run," Mr Muenster said.
"The sheep are making money but only because we're able to finish lambs on grain in a feedlot we established recently at Hay.
"We're now selling fourth- and fifth-cross White Dorper lambs out of the feedlot direct to a processor for more than $100 a head."
The goat venture encompasses three depots - the main one on "Congarrara" and two smaller ones on leased country at North Bourke and Wanaaring.
Depending which depot is closest, landholders will regularly deliver loads of goats, while Mr Muenster also goes out with a team to muster goats on farm for the owners.
In either case, Mr Muenster buys the goats at a live weight price from the landowner.
The Enngonia depot is the largest of the three, and where the final loads to Melbourne depart from.
This depot is located west of the homestead and incorporates an innovative stock handling set-up designed for efficiency.
The complex includes a set of yards suited to both sheep and goats -under a sprinkler system to reduce stock stress when working in hot conditions - connected to a laneway (200 metres wide by 10 kilometres long and encompassing about 1000ha).
The laneway runs east-west and is fenced into smaller internal sections which in turn are connected to three goat-holding paddocks (to the north of the lane way) which range in size from 600ha to 1200ha.
Another set of load-out yards are located at the eastern end of the laneway complex as well as a larger holding paddock - 2600ha - designed for holding animals long-term.
It's into this paddock kids, or sick or malnourished goats collected during mustering and unsuited to trucking are released to either grow out or recover.
The laneway and holding paddocks are designed to resemble the goats' natural habitat which means they are watered using "scrapes" - depressions dug to resemble naturally occurring water holes and filled using piped artesian water as needed.
A second laneway running north-south connects at the eastern end of the main laneway and is mostly used for handling the sheep and cattle, and to assist in mustering and holding stock.
A third set of yards to the north is used for sheep and cattle.
Learning to work with the goats has been an on-the-job experience and involved some trial and error, Mr Muenster said.
"When we started the depot we put in troughs to water the goats and had some deaths - we hadn't realised the goats wouldn't use them because they'd never been handled before or been yarded," he said.
"We had to think like a goat and fixed the problem by using the scrapes.
"Animal welfare is a top priority and we've invested a lot of money into the yards, laneway and holding paddocks with the aim of creating an environment as close to the goats' natural environment as possible while still being easy and efficient to use.
"It all helps to reduce stress on the animals and the handlers."
Access to reliable water is a key factor in the success of operations on "Congarrara".
The property has four artesian bores which have been capped and the water piped across the property.
Water for the homestead and depot in the centre of the property is piped 28 kilometres to four 50,000 litre holding tanks located behind one of the sheds.
From here it is directed through the laneway with branches off into each holding paddock and to another 100,000 litres stored at the main set of yards.
All tanks are monitored using a float system.
Each holding paddock has four watering points, while each section of the main laneway also has four watering points.
Fencing has been another major investment, which involved the purchase of a tractor and pneumatic fence post driver.
The work has cost an estimated $4000 a kilometre and is only now nearing completion.
"When we took over the property there was (not much) internal fencing and what there was wasn't suited to goats and wouldn't suit the operation we had in mind," Mr Muenster said.
"We made paddocks ranging in size from 600ha to 8000ha, and all the fencing was done using hinge joint to ensure a goat-proof result."
In the grand scheme of things, control of as much of the business as possible from paddock to plate is important to Mr Muenster, and allows him to focus on saving money and then "spending it the right way".
This resulted in the purchase of an American-made Robinson R22 helicopter and most recently a Kenworth B-double truck.
"Everything we've invested in has been with the intent to save money, eliminate dead bills and cut out the middlemen where possible," Mr Muenster said.
Mr Muenster started mustering goats using bikes and dogs, which was cheap, but hard-going and time consuming.
He also seemed to keep coming up short of a load.
"To complete the loads I started buying goats from other landowners and selling direct to the processor, Australian Goat Meat Company in Melbourne."
He next tried a contract gyrocopter and pilot which made the job easier but eventually got his pilot's license and invested in his own chopper.
"I can muster now in half the time it took with the gyrocopter, and I don't need as many staff - and I can muster when we want not when the pilot can," he said.
This article is sourced from The Land’s '10 of Our Best’ feature showcasing farm families’ success stories from across NSW.