Spotlight on weaning, welfare and education

Spotlight on weaning, welfare and education

The Australian goat industry is one of the most diverse – in commodities produced, farming systems and expansive global supply chains.

To capture industry interests and support ongoing advancements in goat productivity and profitability, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) invests in research, development and adoption (RDA) projects each year to deliver lasting industry outcomes.

Your levy, your voice

Exactly 16.7¢ (44%) of your goat levy is invested research and development (R&D) for the Australian goat industry. This represents the largest portion of your levy. As such, this investment needs to represent your best interests and deliver outcomes to industry that are insightful, practical, and have long-term benefits.

The Goat Industry Research, Development and Adoption Committee (GIRDAC) inform the design of goat productivity projects.

GIRDAC representatives are tasked with collecting R&D priorities for investment from grassroots producer engagement and proposing R&D projects to address these priorities.

For the coming year, the following projects will be established.

Destination Goat: Driving improved transport welfare outcomes for goats

The goat transport supply chain has a dynamic chain of responsibility including producers, agents, depot operators, transporters and processors. As such, all stakeholders have a responsibility to uphold Australia’s world-class animal welfare best practice.

‘Destination Goat’ will support key priority stakeholders – including, but not limited to, producers, agents, saleyard/depot operators, transporters, and processors – by delivering a goat-specific transport education package for each step of the supply chain. This will include:

• consultation with GIRDAC and key stakeholders
• development of digital and physical learning resources targeted to each stakeholder group
• production of resources that combine best practice animal welfare with transport standards relevant to each Australian state/territory and other factors e.g. transporting goats in variable weather and climatic conditions (eg. wet/dry season).

KIDStart: Optimising kid weaning success

Optimal kid weaning is integral to enhancing animal welfare, productivity and profitability in the Australian goat industry. With various strategies used across meat, dairy, and fibre, an opportunity for research into optimal pre-weaning and weaning interventions can inform greater productivity for producers.

‘KIDStart’ will identify and evaluate current interventions implemented on managed goat enterprises. The intended outcome of this project will be:

• understanding preweaning and weaning strategies that are utilised in managed goat businesses (meat, fibre and dairy) across Australia and internationally
• determining the cost-benefit of the adoption of each identified kid weaning intervention across managed goatmeat systems, informed by producer consultation
• demonstrating these identified strategies on a range of goat production systems
• developing practical adoption resources for best practice kid weaning.

National Goat Roadshow 2.0

Given the dynamic and maturing Australian goat industry, GIRDAC have identified a need for producers to remain informed through accessible online tools and resources. Building on the success of the previous National Goat Roadshow, this project will be delivered over an estimated three-year timeframe.

With a multimedia focus and improving the previous online format without content duplication, the ‘National Goat Roadshow 2.0’ activity will deliver:

• a quarterly webinar or other digital media delivery, with agile topic selection to ensure relevancy and timeliness of content to goat industry needs
• development of practical case studies, in both written and video-format, which are focused on demonstrating in-field work of Australian goat producers in collaboration with GIRDAC
• virtual event facilitation, including pre- and post- event survey engagement and external promotion
• online educational asset management − uploading all content developed throughout the project period − to MLA Goats’ Hub for uninterrupted producer access.

Want to contribute?

Calls for these goat productivity R&D investments close Friday 5 December 2025 but you can join GIRDAC to have your voice heard by industry. As part of GIRDAC, you have the opportunity to contribute to the decisions around where your levy is spent.