Goats are the industry to be in according to commercial producer Sue Donnelly from Taylors Arm near Macksville on the Mid North Coast who says the market is growing not only in the west but also on the coast.
Running around 52 standard commercial Boer does, and looking to grade them up, Mrs Donnelly along with her husband Kevin has been involved in the industry for four years.
Also operating Donnellys' Australian Stock Horse stud and cattle enterprise, the goats complement the grazing system allowing them to make the most out of their 100 acre property which consists of a lot of river country.
Goats are performing well in the coastal country, with Mrs Donnelly saying they are getting a lot of people moving from the city that are looking at goats as means to control weeds and unlock feed
"I think we could have a strong market up here," she said. "We have so much fireweed, and that is originally why we got into them - we saw our neighbours were using goats to control weeds.
"We run cattle as well, goats are our weed controllers and any excess we sell."
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The Donnellys sell their goats to abattoirs at a dressed weight of 18 to 22 kilograms.
"It takes about six to seven months to get them there. I have buyers up here that really like them," she said.
"The prices are as good, if not better than lamb. Turning them over in six to seven months, they return around $230 and each doe commonly has twins so it is just under $500-odd dollars off one doe which is really good for us."
The goats can access feed along the river that the cattle cannot get too which has allowed the Donnellys to maintain their carrying capacity while increase their returns through goats.
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"Good standard does are hard to get your hands on. You can get hold of wild goats and breed up from them, but I thought I was best to spend some money on some nice does and breed up," she said.
"We also run around 35 SenAngus/Angus cross cows and 20 horses as part of the horse stud.
"Normally we would run 50 cows, but because of the drought we dropped back. We put a black Limousin bull over them to produce a nice cross with a bit of Bos Indicus in them to handle the heat, and we sell calves off at around 250kg."
Mrs Donnelly said she was looking for eye muscle area and growth rates in her selections from the Trio of Treasures NSW Boer Goat Sale at Peak Hill last month, where she bought one buck for $1500 and two does for $2000 each.
"I looked for does with growth rates above 100 grams per day, femininity and length - probably about 50 per cent of the females here were good enough for my liking, but the good ones went for good prices," she said.
"The prices were just too good for bucks - I've paid that for commercials so I had to grab a buck.
"Because we have a small amount, all of our three-year-old buck's offspring will be ready to join at the end of the year so I would've needed one in six months."
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During the floods in March the Donnellys lost some goats because of how wet it was and the water lying around for a period of time.
"On a whole for 90 per cent of the time up here goats are perfect," she said. "We have challenges with the wet and dogs... being around the forests so we have to get better dog fences.
"It is no different to out in the Western Districts and Central West, they work a large majority of the time for them (with challenges during drought) and we are similar - we don't get the droughts, but we get the wet and floods."
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