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Goats

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Synopsis – Australian Industry


Year

Gross value of Prod’n
$ ‘000

Exports
$ ‘000

Imports
$ ‘000

Number of Producers

2006-2007

57,208 (meat goats)
87 (cashmere goats)
2,227 (mohair goats)
6,000 (dairy goats)

89,035 (meat goats including meat, live goats, hides and leather)
83 (cashmere goats)
2475 (mohair goats including production from previous years)
n/a (for dairy goats)

846 (meat goats including both meat and leather)
10 (cashmere goats)
1,070 (mohair goats)
4,806 (dairy goat products excluding fetta and kasseri)

n/a (meat goats)
75 (cashmere goats)
500 (mohair goats)
65 (dairy goats)

 

Goats are hardy and versatile animals producing meat, milk, fibre (cashmere and mohair) and skins. They adapt to a wide range of climatic conditions and are easily integrated into wheat and sheep farms or grazing enterprises in most agricultural areas in Australia.

There are a number of goat-based industries in Australia with different degrees of specialisation in these products. These can be broadly categorised as meat goats, cashmere goats, angora (mohair producing) goats and dairy goats.

Meat goats

Around 90 per cent of Australia’s meat production is derived from rangeland type goats, mainly from feral populations. There is also goat meat production as a by-product of specialist goat milk, mohair and cashmere production. Increasing use is also being made of specialist meat production breeds, mainly the boer goat but also the damara.

In 2006-07, Australia slaughtered 1.35 million goats and exported 75 300 live goats. Apparent domestic consumption of goat is currently around 800-1000 tonnes a year and is growing due to changes in the ethnic composition of the population, but more than 95 per cent of Australian goat meat production is exported.

Australian exports of live goats grew strongly in the 1990s and into the 2000s but have declined in recent years due to increases in domestic slaughter for export and the effect of extended drought on feral goat populations. Australia is the world’s second largest exporter of live goats, with the main markets being Malaysia (68 per cent of total Australian live goat exports in the three years to 2006-07), Singapore (16 per cent), Indonesia (5 per cent) and Brunei (3 per cent). Australia’s reduced export availabilities of live goats have meant higher export prices in recent years.

Annual world production of goat meat is around 4.3 million tonnes, less than one per cent of which enters world trade. Annual world trade in live goats averaged US$110 million in value in the three years to 2005, while the goat meat trade was valued at US$84 million. Islamic countries are the main importers of live goats; live imports enable these countries to satisfy requirements for halal slaughter. The United States is the main importer of goat meat.

Links

  • Goat Industry Council of Australia (www.gica.com.au), peak industry body.
  • Meat and Livestock Australia (www.mla.com.au), a range of information including the Goats on the Move newsletter.

Cashmere

Cashmere goats produce down — the cashmere fibre — under longer coarser hair. Cashmere needs special processing; the raw fibre must be dehaired to separate the fine soft cashmere from the largely worthless hair.

The Australian cashmere industry began in the 1970s, expanded during the 1980s with support from international processors, but has declined since then due to disruptions in its traditional markets. In 2006, there were an estimated 75 farms shearing around 13 000 cashmere goats, with a single farm in the Riverina region accounting for around two thirds of this total.

In the period 1985 to 2004, the Australian Cashmere Marketing Corporation, an industry owned organisation, marketed up to 90 per cent of the Australian cashmere clip on behalf of growers. Now most of the Australian clip is delivered by growers directly to a cashmere processor located at Bachus Marsh in Victoria.

Cashmere is mainly produced in the cold and arid regions of central Asia. World production of raw (unseparated) cashmere was an estimated 20 000 tonnes, of which nearly three quarters was produced by China, with Mongolia accounting for the bulk of the remainder. There is a strong upward trend in Chinese cashmere production. Unspun cashmere is mostly traded in an unprocessed (not carded or combed) form by China to wealthy countries that do the spinning into garment. Increasingly, however, China is processing its own raw cashmere into garments before export.

Links

  • The Schneider Group (www.gschneider.com), provides market report, latest market indicator prices (China, Mongolia and Iran) and monthly Chinese cashmere exports.

Mohair

Mohair is a wool-like fibre produced as fleece from angora goats. Mohair becomes coarser as a goat gets older. ‘Kid’ mohair starts at an average fibre diameter of 23 microns and is typically used in knitwear. ‘Young goat’ (intermediate diameter) mohair is used in suiting material while ‘Adult goat’ mohair — the coarsest ranging up to 36 micron — is typically used in coats and rugs.

Australian mohair production peaked at around 1200 tonnes in 1989 but has declined substantially since then. In 2001, there were an estimated 60 000 angora goats farmed in Australia on around 500 holdings. Mohair production was estimated to be 203 tonnes in 2007, down 13 per cent on the previous year due mainly to the effects of severe drought.

Mohair in Australia is generally sold by auction or private treaty through brokers. In past years Australia has processed up to 40 per cent of its mohair into garments and homewares.
Key participants in the Australian mohair industry are:

  • Mohair Australia Limited, the peak industry organisation for mohair fibre and the angora goat industry in Australia.
  • Two major mohair brokers: National Mohair Pool Proprietary Limited (Cudal, New South Wales), and Australian Mohair Marketing Organisation (Narrandera, New South Wales).

World mohair production peaked in the late 1980s at more than 25,000 tonnes but has since declined to 5,600 tonnes in 2007. The decline mainly reflects factors like increased competition from manufactured fibres and the removal of subsidies on mohair production in the United States. The world mohair market is increasingly dominated by South Africa. In 2007, South African production represented 54 per cent of the world total; Lesotho 13 per cent; United States 10 per cent; Argentina 8 per cent; Turkey 6 per cent and Australia 4 per cent.

With reduced world mohair supplies, world mohair prices in constant dollar terms have increased sharply in recent years. Current mohair prices, however, are still much lower in constant dollar terms than in the early 1980s.

Links

  • Goat Industry Council of Australia (www.gica.com.au).
  • Mohair South Africa website (www.mohair.co.za), auction market reports for South Africa and statistics on production consumption and exports of mohair by key producing country.
  • Mohair Australia website (www.mohair.org.au), industry data for Australia, including detailed auction and private treaty sales reports and husbandry hints. Access to the Australian herd book and other information is password protected for members only.

Dairy goats

Goat milk is an important source of nutrient in many countries throughout the world. Cheese types traditionally made from goat milk (chevre cheese) include feta (also traditionally made from sheep milk) and Kasseri (also made from sheep milk).

Australia has six recognised dairy goat breeds — Saanen, Toggenburg, British Alpine, Anglo Nubian, Australia Brown and Australian Melaan — the most numerous of which is the Saanen.

The estimated number of goats milked in Australia in 2006-07 was around 12 000 producing 6 million litres of milk. State shares of this production were Victoria 30 per cent, Queensland 25 per cent, Tasmania 15 per cent, South Australia 15 per cent, Western Australia 10 per cent and New South Wales 15 per cent.
Australian goat milk is mainly sold as whole milk from farms, although there is increasingly cheese processed on farms. Cheese production accounts for around 60 per cent of domestic production, with a further 35 per cent consumed as whole milk or yoghurts; the remainder is processed into powder and tablets.

Australia is importing increasing quantities of chevre and other cheese types that have traditionally been made from goat milk. However, feta and kasseri are also traditionally made from sheep milk and increasing from cows’ milk.

Global production of goat milk averaged 13.4 million tonnes a year in the three years to 2006, equivalent to 2.3 per cent of total world production of all milk types. The main producers are India (28 per cent of world production in the three years to 2006), Bangladesh (11 per cent), Sudan (11 per cent), Pakistan (5 per cent) and France (4 per cent).

Links