BYMOUNT grazier Michael Stanford is the first to admit that he became a goat farmer by accident.
But accident or not, it’s a good time to be one.
Mr Stanford has a 2020 hectare property near Injune where he runs 700 nanny Boer and Boer cross goats and their kids, a small herd of his own cattle and also agistment cattle.
His goat farming first began about 10 years ago when during dry times he was forced to destock his cattle heard and seek revenue off property.
“I’m an accidental goat farmer,” he said.
“I had a few here all the time but me and a mate in the last drought we destocked here and went down south and we just did feral goats and went halves with the cockies.
“We would send them all to Charleville and any of the little ones I just brought them back here and so I had Boer billies.
“A couple of years ago I drafted all the feral ones out and I kept a couple of the Kalahari Red because someone said eagles can’t see red.”
He now sells about 600 billies a year to a private meatworks in Crows Nest.
Mr Stanford said at one stage he was selling to Malaysia for breeding purposes but the low maintenance system he currently had was much easier.
“They were all nannies and they had to be a certain weight range, certain age and pregnancy tested,” he said.
“Now I usually just try and sell the little billies before they start working otherwise they will start knocking themselves around.
“I don’t do any management they just run on the whole place, I muster them, draft off the little billies and sell them and put them back out.
“Because they’re aren’t that many we have no worming issues so don’t need to drench.”
He said goat meat was popular with consumers as a leaner cut but the animals also had their benefits from a farming perspective.
“They are beautiful eating and they are just like sheep,” he said.
“I’ve been to parties and people have cooked mutton, beef and goat and you don’t tell people what they are. They will clean it all up and you tell them they are eating goat and they say which was goat?
“They are really good on regrowth control too.
“I lock them in paddocks and they will clean up suckers and other things.
“Goats are pretty funny when they graze because they eat a lot of rubbish and even though they are grazing they are eating leaves and other things as well.”
It’s a good time to have a strong goat herd with prices recently reaching record levels of $7/kg carcase weight.
Mr Stanford said he believed the strength in the market would continue.
“Over the last however many years when the prices started getting up all of them feral goats in the West they were a problem but now they are worth money,” he said.
“Eventually their numbers are decreasing and the amount of goat we need is still the same or increasing.
“Feral goats out west 10 years ago, they weren't worth anything but now they are worth $50, $60 or $100 each.”