It pays to be sheepish around goats

Name: Sam Usher
Location: ‘Leinster’, Mungallala, Qld
Enterprise: Mixed grazing with 6,000 does, mostly rangeland
Property size: 18,211ha
Soils and grasses: mulga/box tree country with 100% coverage of buffel grass
Rainfall: 530mm
Target market: export meat production, live export of Boer and rangeland bucks to South East Asia
Additional farm enterprises: 4,200 Dorper ewes and 300 mixed breed cattle

Applying the principles of sheep management to what was previously a rangeland goat operation with occasional harvesting is paying off for Sam Usher.

Sam was brought in as manager of 'Leinster', owned by the Brisbane-based Adrian and Margaret Tiller,  a few years ago and goats were already on the place. Since taking over, Sam has run them more ‘deliberately', introducing similar management practices as used with the sheep flock.

With consistent high prices for goats over the past few years and strong demand, Sam felt getting into goats was a solid investment, and suited the country. The opening of the new processing plant at Bourke created further demand, with  regular contracts from South East Asian buyers for young Boer goats and rangeland bucks.

The goals are to increase production and survival, supported by the introduction of new Boer genetics.

“This meant doing things like introducing a  controlled joining to streamline mustering and marking times while reducing kid loss (due to mismothering and predation),” Sam said.

“Since the introduction of Boer genetics our yield has changed from 37%-40% to us regularly getting 50% yield over the hook."

Boers were introduced two and half years ago with 300 does and a number of bucks.

Predation and feral animals  are a problem at 'Leinster' and the property is now in a fenced cluster group with the surrounding neighbours. 'Leinster' had been boundary fenced for years with older style high maintenance netting. The next step is to install an apron all the way around to reduce maintenance.

“The first step was to implement an extensive fencing program across the property," Sam said. Most paddocks are now 1,010ha.

“I feel this is still a touch too big, but it needs to be kept manageable for the total size of the property.

“We’ve seen no adverse effects from the reducing in paddock size on our dressing percentages so the goats still have plenty of room to browse as they normally would."

Controlled joining sets the cycle up

Sam has implemented a 10-week controlled joining program.

“Ideally we'd have it down to six weeks, and that is my end goal," Sam said.

Sam has previously run a pregnancy scanning business in western Queensland so all the ewes and does are scanned following the joining period.

At the end of the 10 weeks the bucks are removed and six weeks later the does are pregnancy scanned. If they’ve had enough rainfall and have plenty of feed, Sam aims to join the same does twice a year. If this is the case, half way through kidding the bucks are re-introduced to the does. Again they stay in for 10 weeks. The bucks are removed at the same time the kids are brought in for marking.

Six weeks later the does are scanned again and the kids from the first joining are weaned. All the weaners are tagged with different colours for different years, same as the sheep flock. The maiden does are joined from eight months old.

 “They scan 100% in kid, though the weaning percentages are lower which is normal for maidens," Sam said.   

“We’ve had no issues joining in different months as the does cycle all year.

“Controlled joining is the way to go. We don’t like to run the bucks with the does all year round as they make such a pest of themselves harassing the girls."

By having a set joining period and therefore a discrete kidding time, the goats can be safely mustered the rest of the year without risk of mismothering and losing small kids. Sam can also monitor numbers of goats in each paddock more accurately and, thus, make sure there is enough feed.

“It’s much easier to move the mobs to new paddocks and feed when the kids are bigger," he said.

“Controlled joining has also allowed us to double our kidding percentages from 110% for an all year round joining system to 220%."

Having kidding scheduled for two, 10-week periods means predator control can be concentrated at specific times.

“This has considerably increased the survivability of our kids and has allowed us to wean both young bucks and does into separate paddocks," Sam said.

Obviously this controlled joining program has only been possible because the fences are good enough to keep the bucks out for the rest of the year. All the wild, unmanaged bucks were removed from the doe herds some time ago.

“We sometimes run the sheep and goats together and this works well," Sam said.

“They have different flight zones so there’s no problem with mustering one and not the other. I sometimes use a drone when mustering the goats to get an idea where the little mobs are in the paddock before I go in. If I want to push the goats a certain way I can ‘buzz’ them with the drone."

It's about what they eat

Underpinning the management strategies, according to Sam, is nutrition. That alone supports twice yearly joining.

The goats have access to plenty of browse with low mulga and regrowth. Regular visual assessments of the feed supply determine when mobs need to be moved. The goal is to have about 500 goats and /or sheep/1,010ha paddock. This keeps mismothering to a minimum and the time in the yards manageable for each mob.

“We’re lucky that 'Leinster' has been highly developed over the last 25 years through a combination of seeding buffel and spelling when needed," he said.

“We’ve had 138mm this year and the place has plenty of groundcover and feed. This has meant we haven’t had to supplementary feed yet and we still join twice a year successfully."

Scanning – it's the bee's knees

When the offspring are weaned, the doe and buck kids are moved into separate paddocks. There’s no need to castrate the young bucks as the internal fencing stands up to the pressure. During a good season, Sam achieved a 220% kidding rate and this reduced to 160% due to dry conditions in the last round.

“Before we started scanning, we had no idea what losses we might have been incurring, though turn off rates to the abattoir were low," he said.

“You can’t manage what you don’t know."

By scanning, Sam knows early if there has been an issue at joining and can re-join the does if needed.

“Goats very sensitive to nutrition stress and can quickly abort. If the does have scanned in kid and then you have less kids on the ground, it can help you figure out what might have gone wrong," he said.

If the season isn’t going well, Sam can also easily identify which are the less productive animals and sell them, thus also improving the overall reproduction of the herd and reducing the grazing pressure.

“We want to keep does that repeat join and kid and wean. We want strong, robust bucks. We look for ones with long, deep bodies who can preform in the local environment. They need to be able to look after themselves with the paddock sizes we have and tough it out," he said.

“You could say we’re looking for the Les Norton of bucks, robust and adaptable."  (Les Norton, now of ABC TV fame, is a fictional character created by author Robert G. Barrett.)

Sam aims to have the does kid out in each paddock resulting in an even number of kids across the mobs.

“We do this to help manage the risk of mismothering. I saw in the sheep industry some poor results when for example all the triplet bearing ewes were put in the one paddock," he said.

"At lambing time with so many lambs hitting the ground in a concentrated period there was a lot of losses due to mismothering."

Selling time

Most of the goats are turned off for export meat production with a 15kg carcase target weight, before they break their two teeth. All the goats are weighed before transport and Sam looks for a liveweight of 35kg and above.

The consignments are mostly surplus bucks and cull does. Sam is going through a process of removing the older females from the mob  and replacing them with Boer/rangeland crosses.

“With prices as they are we’re still getting $167/head for the old girls and once we have our breeding doe numbers where we want them, we’ll move into selling breeding stock to other producers,” Sam said.

The introduction of Boer genetics to the business has opened up the live export market to south east Asia, which seeks Boer does  for breeding.

Blazing a TRAIL

Earlier this year Sam won a TRAIL scholarship with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, supported by MLA and the Goat Industry Council of Australia.

“I got a lot out of TRAIL, a great deal about self-improvement," he said.

"I've a lot of knowledge and industry experience and I would like to pass this on to improve the industry. The TRAIL program made me realise in my enthusiasm to share my knowledge I tend to talk over people and that, people that are more reserved than myself, while happy to listen but have a lot to contribute, as long as I take the time to listen and include them in the conversation.

“I’ve made some lifelong friends and I’d highly recommend TRAIL to anyone who’s looking to take the next step."

And what's next?

“I believe that the future of the goat industry is very a positive one, and I think there is huge opportunity to change current practices and thinking and move away from harvesting," Sam said.

“We are seeing the results of our change in practices – increased kidding rates, less kid loss, better feedbase management.

“The mix of sheep and goats for us is perfect. The goats don’t put on weight as easily but their reproduction rates are fantastic even in dry conditions. They are perfect for western Queensland and NSW where conditions can be so tough”.

Information: usherpregtesting@bigpond.com