thefield Goats give Gore graziers value for money and diversity as they rebuild after the drought

Australia has long been the land of droughts and flooding rains. More than a century after Dorothea Mackellar penned My Country, her homesick tribute still rings true.

Any farmer knows drought can bring both their business and their family to its knees: whether that be whispering desperate prayers seeking a miracle or in soul crushing defeat depends on each individual.

So, when the rains do arrive at last and dams are full and creeks are flowing again and photos of farm kids seeing mud for the first time go viral and relieved farmers phone the ABC to report how much rain they’ve got, it can be easy for those not on the land to think the problem is solved. But often, this is just the beginning.

Having destocked to make it through, the farmer or grazier needs to buy livestock in an overheated market to rebuild.

While fourth generation grazier Matt Bartlett knows the relief that rain brings with it, he also knows the rain is closely followed by the question “Where to next?”

Matt had to work out what to change to be better prepared for future droughts and other risks.

Matt and his wife, Jess, had returned to Gore in 2016 for Matt to work alongside his parents, David and Sandy, in their sheep meal and wool producing business at their property Dunblane.

Unfortunately, the drought arrived at the same time.

In a typical year, the Bartletts’ 11,330 hectare aggregation comprising of Dunblane and Wyngarra and a leased block Orungal receives about 700mm of rain but in 2017 and 2018, they only recorded 300mm each year.

In 2019, the situation worsened when their annual rainfall was just 150mm.

The family had sold all its sheep

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except for about 70 stragglers which survived in the properties’ furthest reaches by the time the drought broke.

At capacity, the Bartletts were running 17,000 Merino wethers.

2020 was the year of fencing: despite having no animals, the Bartletts erected 35 kilometres of exclusion fencing, as part of a cluster of 10 graziers, with assistance from the Queensland Feral Pest Initiative to try and combat wild dogs, an ongoing challenge for sheep producers across the state.

Matt says the fencing was a healthy distraction at the right time.

“I don’t mind building a new fence, but I hate fixing up an old fence,” he says.

“We came out of the drought and were like ‘Well what’s next, what are we doing?’ and the fencing gave us so many opportunities.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do the goats or anything else really without it because of the dogs. The fencing is about regaining and getting control back over what you’re doing and not having to stress about going out in the paddock and finding dead or bitten sheep.

“In the past we’d lost 30-40 in a single attack. Even with the fence in the last six months we’ve lost up to 60 sheep to dogs.

“We thought we had the dogs under control and they were gone, but we’ve installed 4G cameras and there are still about 10 or so in the cluster so we’re baiting, trapping and shooting to try and get on top of them.”

The Bartletts also use donkeys to guard their sheep in the same way that graziers use Maremma dogs and alpacas to ward off predators.

After the fences were built and the Bartletts went to restock, Matt’s involvement with industry lobby group AgForce and the record high goat prices meant they could be a viable diversification option.

“Dad wasn’t so keen on the idea of goats, but I’d seen how pretty much all the guys out west had goats as a sideline business and it helped put a lot of kids through boarding school,” Matt says.

“It was sort of a gradual realisation that they were actually making a significant amount of money and just from talking with them, the idea was probably forming in my mind even before the drought but I didn’t realise it at the time.

“The sheep market prices were more consistent, but while their input costs increased over time, the prices haven’t kept up which has meant we as producers absorbed the costs and sheep and they appeared easier to manage which was important as it’s only Dad and I here with casual staff on an as needs basis for things like shearing and dad’s not getting any younger.

“Going into goats was more than just economics, it was about having time to focus on other things in the business and achieving a better work life balance.”

David was hesitant at first, preferring to go into low maintenance sheep like Dorpers, but was happy for Matt to run goats alongside them.

Matt initially bought Rangeland Nannies from Longreach, Cunnamulla, Morven and Burke as well as 38 purebred Boer bucks to start with but 12 of them died during a particularly wet and cold snap their first winter.

“That was a tough day and a tough lesson at $1700 head,” Matt says.

They rotated these bucks in with different mobs of nannies in summer, autumn and winter to try and have with kidding percentage.

The mob that performed the best was joined from February to April.

Matt has since turned to second and third cross Boer goats sourced from commercial breeders in Dirranbandi, Morven and locally rather than a purebred Boer as he’s found a better fit for the Bartlett family’s Traprock country.

“There’s a lot to be said about hardiness and survivability,” he says. These rangeland goats didn’t get to where they are today by selective breeding, it was survival of the fittest and I think that can’t be forgotten.”

These more commercial style bucks have helped improved kidding percentages and are running with the nannies year-round while the Bartletts build numbers up.

Matt anticipates they’ll be able to run 8000-10,000 does at capacity across two of their home blocks and have their 6000 sheep on the third block.

He plans to move to a controlled joining over February, March and

The Bartletts’ geographic position put them within a three hour radius of chainpull our country for suckers like eucalypts and wattle about every three to five years, which is a huge cost in terms of labour, fuel and time, but the goats are just absolutely amazing,” he says.

Despiteearlylossesduetoextreme cold,goatshaveadaptedwelltothe Bartlettfamily’sTraprockcountry grazingoperation,left;thesekids, above,lookrelaxedbutatmuster time,they’resure-footedescape artists;donkeysareusedtohelp protectsheepfromwilddogs.

“We’ve not had to pull a paddock that they’ve been in for an extended amount of time since we started running them and in some paddocks we’ve actually pulled them off as they were a little too enthusiastic!”

The other is that while goats require less frequent handling than sheep, they certainly make up for it when it comes time to muster them!

The Bartletts have purchased a Proway Bulk handler to take the physicality out of drenching and tagging the goats.

Matt has dabbled in drones for mustering but this is limited by current legislation so they’re mainly mustering on bikes with dogs. Helicopter mustering may become viable down the track.

“Without dogs, it would be impossible,” he says.

“Sweep is my favourite working dog and honestly, she’s as valuable as any good worker when we are in the terrain that’s impassable for bikes.

“I’m biased but I wouldn’t sell her even if someone offered me $30,000 for her.” four different buyers including Grassland Goats at Moonie, Carey Brothers Yangan, through an agent in Warwick which supplies clients in Boonah and Brisbane Valley.

But the biggest shock of all has been the penalising for goats “being overweight”.

This creates options with supplying the market which western goat producers don’t have as they only have one close processor, Western Meat Exporters, in Charleville which can be an issue if there is a drop in market demand or glut in supply.

The nearest abattoir for these producers after Charleville is in Bourke and this facility only reopened for processing in late 2022 after various issues meant it sat vacant for more than three years.

A few years into the Bartlett family’s journey into goats, Matt has learnt more than a thing or two.

For starters, the transition wasn’t as simple as many people make it out to be but it has been worth overcoming the teething issues they’ve faced.

While he expected the goats would help reduce the regrowth in their paddocks, he has been astounded as just how efficient they are at controlling it.

“We would typically have to

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“Goats only get their two teeth when they are 18 months so there’s more of a window than sheep but it’s still a young animal and with all the genetic improvements, we are trying to get them heavier faster for a quicker turn off but we’re not really getting the benefit of this because if it gets to a point where it’s too heavy, you lose on price.

“When we started running goats, it was a very hot, 17-kilo dressed market so we sold a lot for $9.80 per kilo dressed weight but this has since dropped back to about $5 and there’s a discount for anything bigger. “The 15-20kg bracket sells for $4 and anything from 20-25kg only makes $3 a kilo.

“I think this drop in price may be people associate a heavy goat with being an old stinker, so that’s a challenge for us as producers to not only raise good goats, but to educate the consumer heavier goats can still be tender and delicious instead of old and chewy.”

And Matt’s come to realise sheep still have a valuable role to play in the farm’s diversity.

“I will say Dad has been great in letting me get into goats and take ownership and I’m certainly happy we did it, but with the fluctuations in the goat market prices, the sheep still give us options even if we are not as focused on them as we were.”

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