Two significant projects are playing their part in driving a sustainable future for the goat meat industry by providing genetic measurement and refining management practices respectively.
The five year, $3.7 million Measured Goats project is gathering genomic data on production, welfare and reproduction traits which will develop performance benchmarks for the goat meat industry while Going Ahead With Goats is a $1.2 million project helping producers expand market share, running into mid-2025.
Australian goat meat exports reached $298.6 million for the 2021-22 financial year with 64pc of goats processed nationally provided by NSW producers.
The Measured Goats project has begun with 1000 rangeland, Kalahari, and Boer does based at NSW DPI Condobolin research station with the aim to produce 8,000 kids over the five years of the project.
Speaking at the Goat Meat Production field day held at Craig and Jo Stewart's property Buena Vista, Collie, NSW DPI livestock genetics research officer and Measured Goats project lead Dr Tom Granleese has a PhD in quantitative genetics and his background is in breeding values in cattle, but sees no reason why goat producers can't use breeding values to improve productivity and efficiencies.
"Genetics is set at fertilisation and it's permanent. When that animal goes on to breed, it doesn't pass on any of the three years of drought that it was raised and on, it passes on its genetics.
"These are are blocks that we can build on.
"Humans have done a fantastic job over the last 10,000 years domesticating animals and picking the biggest ones. We pick the biggest one and we move on to the next generation.
"When we use breeding values, we eliminate all of the white noise.
"We can really fast track genetic improvement and in a way using breeding values is like fast tracking evolution.
"So if I'm a commercial producer and I'm trying to extract the most dollars per hectare, I'm using the tools available to get myself up there."
Dr Granleese said only using visual selection could actually see producers step backwards.
"If you are just going on visual selection, you're playing Russian roulette," he said.
"How do you know it's good if you just go over there and you have a look?
"The goat industry does have breeding values called Kidplan.
"It's good but it's not very well used. It's not very well implemented, but there is a tool available.
"Everyone not using it for buck and doe selection is doing a terrible job.
"I would say there's a fantastic opportunity for producers to be picking up that five to 10 per cent in their breeding program.
"Now the thing about breed values is that it can be a little bit confusing about what these numbers mean.
"What producers need to remember is they're purely a ranking of first to last."
Dr Granleese said the big issue is the need for more producers to participate.
"So part of our project is a big extension and adoption component," he said.
"The tree is running and we're trying to get more and more. We're going to try and triple the number of studs that are using Kidplan by the end of the five years."
Dr Granleese said the project will also feed genetics into Kidplan.
"We are going to breed five drops of kids with Rangeland, Kalahari, and Boer does and we're going to try and breed at least 8000 kids over those drops.
"From all of those animals we're taking genomic samples so we are creating a new genomic database.
"We want to demonstrate the value of reporting it and it's time for goats to come into modern times of benchmarking.
"It's up to us to demonstrate how to use that technology, why producers would do it, and put a dollar value to it.
"There's no point doing it if you can't link it to profitability."
Kieran Smith is the Local Land Services Goat Advisor and project leader for the Going Ahead with Goats Project which is assisting Western NSW goat producers to increase and accelerate the adoption of goat research and development to help grow domestic and export market share.
Mr Smith said the project was aimed at Western goat producers because there was an opportunity to make a real impact.
"There's a lot of goats out in that Western region with a smaller number of producers," he said.
"So it's an opportunity to make a big impact while only working with a small number of producers.
"The project is really about supporting and upskilling goat producers in the Western region as well as the industry as a whole, and then thereby getting the flow on effect to increasing the Australian goat industry as a whole.
"The 2021-2022 Australian goat exports were valued at 298 million and Western NSW provided about 55pc of that.
"This is why this project was targeted at that area."
Mr Smith said his role is closely tied in with the Measured Goats project as well.
"I've gone out and collected genomic samples from studs involved in Kidplan across NSW and Queensland," he said.
"That has been an awesome opportunity to have a look at these studs using Kidplan and collect some data from them.
"That's really just trying to increase the use of estimated breeding values in the industry."
Mr Smith said there is some important underway and more in the pipeline.
"We've got a few different projects happening with one looking at condition score and weight at the time of joining and following it through to the effect that has on reproductive outcomes," he said.
"It looks in terms of conception and then actual birth, and how many of those kids are going through to kid marking.
"There's another couple that are just sort of in the pipeline at the moment that we are just trying to finalise.
"One of them is going to be a partnership with Charles Sturt University and we're going to put some GPS collars on some goats, put them out in some pretty big paddocks to get a bit of an idea of their grazing ranges, their grazing behavior, how many times they're coming into water a day.
"That's hopefully going to give us some more information for people who want to put water infrastructure in.
"It will show what is an optimal distance between waters.
"The third study we've got is collecting some growth rate data.
"There's a massive variance in growth rate and I'll be there trying to do a gross margin budget with some people on potentially some trade decisions around purchasing.
"Producers can be getting growth rates ranging from 40 grams a day to 200 grams a day. So we are just trying to get a bit more data to capture that."
