Farmers buck trend
FAR Northern interest in Boer goat breeding is growing as migrant communities drive demand for the lean meat and farmers look to use spare land, and fill their fridges.
Betty Hepple and her husband Don have been in the industry for eight years, running about 90 head over 40ha at their Mt Garnet property, about 110km southwest of Cairns.
The Rocky Ridge Boer Goat Stud owners are part of the FNQ Goat Club, which has about 25 members and featured at Rotary FNQ Field Days last week.
Boers are a South African breed developed for meat production and Australia is the largest exporter of goat meat in the world.
Ms Hepple said a domestic market was also emerging.
“We’ve found over the past 12 months or so there’s a big demand from the Nepalese, especially when they have a festival coming up,” she said. “We sell directly to them.” The Hepples source bucks from southern breeders to produce high-quality offspring, mating them twice a year.
Mossman River Boer goat Stud owner Tarella Vico is also popular with Cairns’ Nepalese community and enjoys a strong following at the local markets.
“They just can’t get enough, they’d eat it every day of the week if they could,” she said.
“It’s a very lean meat — one of the leanest — but it has to be treated with great respect in the kitchen because it can dry out very quickly.”
Ms Vico was raised on a sheep and cattle station in southwest Queensland, which also ran Boer goats.
She took on a huge challenge when she decided to introduce the dry country animals at her husband’s cane farm at Mossman, historically a very wet area.
“I was interested in husbandry and making them adaptable to the tropics,” she said. “It’s quite intense so we only have small numbers..
“But we have been successful in spite of the odds against us, like the parasite burden and foot problems.”
Boer goat breeding is becoming recognised as a profitable alternative enterprise for Far Northern landholders, with crossbred does costing as little as $100. Ms Vico said although husbandry took dedication, it was also very rewarding.
“Goats are very intelligent and social animals, and that can be part of the reward because they want to interact with you,” she said.