The
state of Western Australia is vast and isolated. It’s over three times the size
of Texas but has a population of only 2.5 million as against Texas’s 27.5
million. It includes several diverse geographical regions and apart from sheep
and cattle, it has the highest number of feral goats in any state of Australia.
Feral (not wild) goats have ranged over
vast tracts of Western Australia for several hundred years. From as early as
the 1600s when Dutch, French and British maritime traders and adventurers set
foot on the unexplored southern continent, they purposely left goats to provide
food for any unfortunate wretches who might be shipwrecked there at a later
date.
Then, in the early 1800s, the early British
settlers brought dairy goats to the west. They were
later spread by miners and railway gangs who used them as a source of milk,
butter, meat and leather. Some goats were intentionally released while others
escaped. The result was that the goats thrived, bred and the numbers quickly multiplied
until 1928 when they were declared vermin.
By 1982 there were estimated to be
1,000,000 feral goats roaming unchecked in the west. A similar situation applied
in the eastern states. Having easily adapted to the inhospitable, hot, harsh
and dry environments of the outback, the goats had become resilient and hardy
animals.
As the pastoralists extended their
boundaries to graze sheep and cattle, the feral pests were trapped, poisoned or
shot either from the ground or from helicopters in very costly eradication
programs. Other control methods included using Judas goats to
locate herds in order to muster them. Those that escaped extermination were
pushed deeper into the outback.
With the goat problem impossible to
control yet too large to ignore, some pastoralists realized money could be made
from trapping the goats and marketing them rather than shooting them and leaving
the carcases to rot. With live-sheep shipping facilities already well-established
and huge livestock vehicles on the highways capable of carrying 600-800 head of
livestock to the ports, and with a ready market for the meat in Asia – just
across the water, a few astute farmers quietly developed a lucrative trade in
goats. In the early days few outback farmers admitted that goat sales made up
the biggest part of their income.
For example, one farmer had thousands of
them running wild on his 350,000 acre property, competing for feed with his
sheep. Realizing the potential to farm goats for the meat market was staring
him in the face, 6000 goats a year were mustered from several nearby
properties. Once mustered, the goats were driven into a feedlot where they
received supplementary feed and served the required three months behind a 2
meter fence after which time they were classed as domesticated. This process involves training
the goats to respect plain wire electric fences in a compound. From there, they
are released into a larger grazing paddock with electric fence barriers.
Installing approved fencing was the most
expensive item on large pastoral holdings where fences run for hundreds of
kilometres. (Currently the requirements are for a 5 line fence consisting of 2
hot, 3 cold.)
With a 10-year contract to supply the
Sabah government with breeding does, over 20,000 goats were supplied in the
next few years until Sabah was almost self-sufficient. From there the markets
were expanded to the Middle East, and Brunei – a wealthy country with its own
shipping line.
Another example comes from two adjoining
pastoral stations in the Goldfields region covering an area of 700,000 acres. Despite
traditionally running sheep, the station manager admitted there was no money in
sheep. Being thick with Mulga (a woody bush very palatable to goats), the
country was ideal for goats.
Convinced of the potential, the
pastoralist fenced a paddock of 170,000 acres. The 5-line fence running for 170kms.
The area included 13 trap yards. Starting with approximately 4500 breeding does,
140 pure South African Boer bucks were purchased to go over them.
Location
and Transport target markets
Western Australia’s geographical
position and proximity to Asia are significant advantages for the live shipping
trade. Live goat exports were able to “piggy-back” on the sheep ships heading
to the Middle East. Managed goats (taken
from the feedlots) travel far better on the ships than the pure ferals that
suffer greater shipboard losses.
Apart from the live meat trade, abattoirs
licenced for export and Halal killing provide for frozen exports. Markets in
both U.S.A. and Canada consist of both skin-on and skin-off carcases which are
required during the northern winter, while Australia’s nearest neighbours – Malaysia
and Singapore require skin-off goats all year round. However, the biggest
market by far for frozen goat meat from Western Australia is Taiwan which
requires skin-on carcases weighing 14-16 kgs, the peak period being October to
February. In all cases the markets want carcases to be Class1 fat score. The
overseas markets do not want fat goats.
Goat
prices best ever (January 2015)
According to
the Australian Broadcasting Commission, goat producers in Western Australia's
rangelands are receiving the highest prices for their livestock for about 30
years. This is partially the result of unseasonal dry conditions and increased
wild dog attacks which have greatly reduced the number of feral goats roaming wild.
Some farmers are receiving between $50 and $70-a-head to farmers. This
represents double the prices seen in 2014.
Most of Australia’s
processed goat’s meat goes to America.
In the north
of Western Australia rangeland goats are mainly processed through Geraldton
Meat Exports (GME) which has been Western Australia’s
largest exporter of Rangeland Goat for more than 10 years exporting worldwide to
USA, Taiwan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Canada, Jamaica and
Trinidad.
Processing
Goat meat in eastern Australia is undertaken by Western Meat Exporters in
Queensland (see Goat Meat – part 2 – Chevon/Mutton)
Note: While I approached
GME to get permission to use some to the abattoirs photos on their website, I
could not get a response. To see images of the processing line in operation, go
to website at: http://www.gmexports.com.au/
Carcase images used here were taken at a
smaller local abattoir.
