Going ahead with goats project

Local Land Services is delivering the Going Ahead with Goats Project to assist goat producers and the goat industry accelerate goat research and development and grow market share.

Last updated: 14 July 2025

A mix of doe goats stand in a yard.

Quick facts

Lead
Local Land Services
Topics
Livestock <br> Goats
Local Land Services Regions
Western

Project overview

Status: In progress

The NSW Government has invested $1.2 million in the Going Ahead with Goats Project to boost the goat industry in Western NSW by:

  • accelerating the adoption of goat research and development findings
  • increasing the industry’s market share, both in Australia and overseas
  • supporting goat producers to improve their productivity, sustainability and profitability.

Project background

Goat production is an important industry in Western NSW. In 2021–22, Australia’s goat exports were worth $298.6 million, with NSW producers supplying 64% of the goats processed nationally.  

  • In 2023, Australia exported 33,891 tonnes of goatmeat, valued at $237.5 million, to more than 20 destinations around the world.
  • Australian goatmeat exports for 2023 reached their second highest volume on record for the calendar year since 2014.
  • Western NSW regions including Cobar, Bourke, Wilcannia and Broken Hill supplied the largest number of goats to processors in 2022.

The project builds on this strong base, helping producers to remain not only competitive and sustainable in the future, but increase their productivity and market share.

Project delivery

The project will provide opportunities and support to producers by:

  • investing in research that focuses on sustainable genetic improvements
  • upskilling advisors, goat producers, goat operators and stakeholders.

Work underway

Western NSW Goat Producer Groups

Two groups were formed in late 2023, welcoming 21 businesses. Members benefit from:

  • workshops
  • one-on-one support
  • opportunities to learn about nutrition, genetics, herd management, and infrastructure.

Members can also benchmark growth rates, attend field days, and tour handling facilities.

Podcast series

The ‘Pastoral Poddy’ podcast features a ‘Going Ahead with Goat’ series. In this series, goat producers, depot operators and technical experts provide their insights, experiences and advice on goat production and the industry in Western NSW. You can find the series wherever you get your podcasts or by visiting the Pastoral Poddy webpage.

Project videos

Local Land Services' project videos provide practical advice from Western NSW goat producers and technical experts. Thanks to the producers who feature.

Videos cover breeding management of goats and the infrastructure and trapping videos below.

Going Ahead with Goats – Infrastructure

Having the appropriate infrastructure in place for goats plays a critical role in ensuring producers achieve optimal productivity outcomes, along with positive welfare outcomes for both livestock and handlers.

6:33

Going Ahead with Goats – Trapping

Trapping goats presents landholders a time and cost effective tool to muster goats and have better control over total grazing pressure, which benefits both primary production and the local environment, as goat producers in the state’s Far West can atte

7:06

Going Ahead with Goats – Infrastructure

Having the appropriate infrastructure in place for goats plays a critical role in ensuring producers achieve optimal productivity outcomes, along with positive welfare outcomes for both livestock and handlers. Denis Mannion from Lake Wallace Station in the state’s Far West has invested heavily in his goat infrastructure and is enjoying the benefits of this investment.

Video transcript

Going Ahead with Goats – Infrastructure

So, my name is Denis Mannion
I’m on Lake Wallace Station
which is a family owned and run property
in Far Western New South Wales
We’ve got three properties between the family
which we (sort of) all run as one
so we run generally Merino sheep
but we run a few White Suffolk rams
and we run a few Dorper ewes now
and then goats and cattle
the Merino will basically live behind a 5-plain-wire fence
with roo-holes and that in it, whereas
to run a goat we basically do an 8/90/30 hingejoint fence
with 3 barbs, one on the bottom of the mesh,
one on the top of the mesh
and one on the top of the dropper
and that (sort of) keeps 80-90 percent of the vermin out as well
we’ve done about half of that at the moment
and we’ve got another half to do
so we’re hoping to do that within the next 12 months
there was a set of cattle yards, but there wasn’t
a set of sheep yards there
we could use the bones of the yards
but we had to put in the draft and the
everything else to make it sort of work goats in it
and then every time we got a mob of cattle in
we’d have to strip the goat section of it out and then
run a mob of cattle through
and oat section back in, or sheep
as well, we run sheep through there, so
yeah we sort of needed to build a decent set of yards there
I got a graph book and I just started sketching yards basically
I drew the old set of yards and then just
tried to incorporate how we could make
a good set of yards off of it that would
flow and work with the old set
it had to be a big set of yards to handle a lot of goats, and
I just drew it up and I went to Pastoral Panels
and he computerised the design
and then he sent out the yard-kit
we built them, and
yeah we’ve just gradually improved them and changed them
we’ve put shades on, we’ve put more water in them
we muster the paddock, and then put them in the spelling yard
and they go in there for a couple of hours, or
if it’s hot you’d walk them in the evening when it’s cool
just so they handle the trip a little bit better
they mother-up, the kids get a feed
and then you walk them
and then they get to the main yards and
they’re a lot better, healthier animal for it
to muster goats in big areas you need
2 or 3 aircraft, you need
6 or 8 people on the ground
you’ve got people cooking, and there’s a lot of people
to keep busy when you’re using one draft
like you’ve got your drafter, and then
3 people working a gate each
but as you get further back down the yards
sort of everyone is looking for a job
so with the 2 bugles, with the lifter on the end of it
and the weigh-scales are set up as well
so you can use the inside bugle to draft
weigh on the outside
you can be drafting, tagging
you can load a truck while you’re still drafting
we just tried to make it that you can keep
as many people busy, constantly
so having the proper set-up with the yards
means that we can improve our genetic selection on our goats
the benefit of having a good set of yards is
you can pull all of your weaners off, put them aside
and then bring them back around
and then go through them again, and then split them
and then split them again and you can put them
out as you need them, and in as you need them ,and
yeah if you get a good line that are ready to be marked
and tagged that you’re going to keep as breeders
they go straight through the other bugle and then you
start processing them like that
one of the best bits of infrastructure that we bought
to help our goat set-up was probably the lifter
you’re working in the shade
and the wind, like you always get a nice breeze in there
the other probably...
one of the other better bits of infrastructure that we bought
that made life easy is the
four-deck loading ramp
we’ve got 2 of them now and they’re portable, so
we basically don’t use a truck unless we’ve got a
three or four-deck ramp because
we done it for a lot of years and
yeah, it would have saved a lot of heartache
if we’d bought it a bit earlier
with the weigh-scale set up that we’ve
got at the moment, we weigh bulk goats at a time
like if its a mob of small goats, weigh 30
or if they’re big goats, weigh 20
so we try and weigh a sample of goats
or sometimes the whole load
before they go so we can sort of find out
how the yields are going with them
if we sort of weight them just to get an idea on
what sort of size goat that we need to send
we’ll do a draft, put the smalles goat in there
if it’s big enough, well the rest of the mob’s big enough
another really important piece of infrastructure is your roads
truck drivers used to hate coming out here
we’ve put a lot of grids in to help their trip
so they’re not pulling up every 5 minutes
and we clay-top sandhills
we take corners out, we straighten roads
we’ve put a heap of time and effort into
making the trip up here as best as it possibly can be
so truckies like coming back
the infrastructure comes down to
building better yards, building better fence lines
building better roads, just
every little bit of work that you put into running a goat
improves your whole enterprise
and once you’ve put that infrastructure in to run a goat
you can run multiple species of animals
there’s not too much you can’t run behind goat infrastructure
so if you want to run a Dorper, you can
if you want to run cattle...
you can basically run anything with goat infrastructure

Measured Goats Project

Local Land Services is working with the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to deliver the Measured Goats project. Learn more about the Measured Goats project.

Information for goat producers outside of Western NSW

If you are a goat producer outside Western NSW, you can find information and guidance through:

You can also contact your regional agriculture advisor for local support.

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Funding and partnerships

The Going Ahead with Goats Project is being delivered by Local Land Services, with support from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, through funding from the NSW Government.

For more information, contact: 
Kieran Smith, Goat Advisor 
Phone: 0448 727 977
Email: kieran.smith@lls.nsw.gov.au

Contact Local Land Services NSW

We welcome your enquiries, feedback and comments.  Contact our team

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Phone:1300 795 299
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