School students lead the way in Led Goat competition

South Australia has a small farmed-goat industry, but its future has something the other states don’t have – the Royal Adelaide Show’s Led Goat Wether competition.

Where else do you find a pavilion with over 200 goats from commercial and stud breeders and about 300 students in front of thousands of spectators?

The Led Goat Wether competition has been running for around 20 years. In recent years, 25–30 schools have prepared teams of up to eight wether goats which require students to feed, groom and halter-train their goats for the competition.

A strong interest in goats enables agriculture teachers to teach a range of goat-related topics including breeds, breeding, nutrition and diseases. This has resulted in many students learning the

basics of goat care and farming. Some schools have strong connections to local breeders and country shows, such as the Copper Coast Show which holds goat competitions in the lead up to the Royal Adelaide Show.

Four-part competition

So what does the competition look like? It has four parts:

1. a grand parade
2. individual ‘on the hoof’ judging
3. handler competition
4. most professional school.

Held in the main arena, the grand parade showcases schools and their goat teams in formation. Students parade in their show team uniforms, shiny boots and wearing big smiles. It’s quite a spectacle with over 200 goats and has proven to be a great team and character-building exercise for students aged between 10–16 years.

The ‘on the hoof’ judging takes most of the day, with goats being weighed, scanned, and grouped into weight categories with 12–20 goats in each weight class. It sees stud Boer goats, commercial Boers, composites, crossbreds and even some dairy goats going head-to-head in very tight weight classes.

While other competitions show mature bucks and does, this competition is focused on the end product, which is wether meat goats ready for slaughter. Most breeders are very excited to see their animals up against other goats in the industry and judged as meat goats, with judges looking for muscling where it matters, appropriate fat cover and composition and structure.

Great showcase of farmed goats

The competition is a great showcase of what farmed goats can be, with well finished capretto class goats around 20kg, lightweight goats 25–40kg, and heavy weight goats that can be butchered like a lamb in the 40–80kg range.

The handler competition is highly competitive, with students judged on how well they manage their animal and present them to the judge. Some students have even learnt how to brace a goat – a technique usually only seen in 4H competitions in the United States.

The final part of the competition is the most professional school competition which is judged by secret judges over the two days and looks for excellent examples of animal welfare, pen presentation, student knowledge about goats, and how well they present themselves to the public.

Over the last 20 years this competition has been a starting point for many people in the South Australian goat industry, with students and even a few agriculture teachers becoming commercial goat producers. The next Royal Adelaide Show is on 2–10 September 2023.