Kids +

Queensland goat producer, Pieter van Jaarsveld. Credit: Louw Hoffman.

Queensland goat producer, Pieter van Jaarsveld, Sunset Hill Boer Goats, Inglewood, is the Kids+ project manager and has goats in the trial.

“I’ve been involved in other goat trials with UQ and MLA and I did my honours thesis on a goat project involving similar data related to what this project is looking at,” Pieter said.

“The fact I was already doing research work on this topic but on a smaller scale meant it was a natural evolution to become involved in this project and go forward and get more data on a larger scale.

“It means we can benchmark goats as a whole as much as we can industry-wise and of course on-farm.”

Pieter runs around 2,000 breeding does, with all does and bucks individually eID tagged to enable data collection and full traceability. 

He says the data Kids+ will collect over five years will provide producers with value at both an on-farm level and an industry level at a critical time for the industry.

“It’s a project where we get to measure kids being born, growing up and having kids over this whole period so you get more accurate data,” Pieter said.

“Producers in the project are from different production systems, so we get this wealth of data. We can compare it to various management methods in the industry to get a much clearer picture on what’s happening to goat numbers, genetics-wise and production-wise.

“It will enable the industry to see what can be achieved in collecting data and get more out of the data to help their business, as well as the potential to see what animals are doing on an individual basis as opposed to a mob,” Pieter said

Angus Ramsey and daughter Zara. Credit: Louw Hoffman.

South-west Queensland goatmeat producer, Angus Ramsey of ‘Old Paisley’, Inglewood, is among the producers participating in the Kids+ project.

Angus, his wife Emily, daughter, Zara, and his parents, Peter and Julie, currently join 885 does, ranging from Rangeland to Boer goats and F1s, turning off goats in the 30kg to 34kg liveweight range.

“We’re really excited about the Kids+ project and collecting data,” Angus said.

“We have 155 first- and second-cross weaner does that have been tagged with RFID tags so far as part of the project. We currently have 730 does kidding out, and once those kids are weaned, we will tag those does and all of their kids.

“We will scan and weigh the goats and use the data to help make management decisions, rather than making decisions based on visual assessments. Particularly when it gets dry, we will be able to offload does based on their performance data because the data doesn’t lie.

“The data will also help inform other aspects of our business such as supplementary feeding programs when our does are kidding,” Angus said.

The Ramseys have been part of the goatmeat industry for four years and have focused on improving their herd genetics in that time.

“While the base of our herd was Rangeland, we have gone hard on improving genetics and buying in quality Boer and Kalahari billies,” Angus said.

“We produce F1 and F2 billies which we sell to other local goat producers. We run our operation across 2,000 acres, so we need it to be profitable and producing goats that are tough enough to thrive on some of our Traprock country is important.”

Queensland seedstock producer, Helen Darlington. Credit: Louw Hoffman.

Queensland seedstock producer, Helen Darlington of Yarrabee Boer Goat Stud, Goombungee, said she was motivated to participate in Kids+ to help the industry develop and mature.

For the Kids+ project, data is being collected on approximately 100 of Helen’s breeding does and their progeny.

Helen is also supplying data she has collected over the past 25 years for researchers to analyse.

“I collect a lot of data and have been in the industry a long time. All the goats I breed are single sire mated so I know the parentage history of every goat I’ve bred,” Helen said.

“I wanted to have a role in contributing to helping the goat industry evolve and also play a future role in providing advice to producers. I always have animal welfare at the forefront of my mind so I also thought it would be interesting to see comparisons of data on things like survival rates and multiplication rates.

“There are many producers who are new to the industry and for some, goats have been more of an opportunistic venture as opposed to a carefully managed operation.

“This project will provide a wealth of information to producers about what they can achieve compared to what they are achieving from a productivity, profitability and welfare perspective,” Helen said.