Abstract:
An interview-based questionnaire survey was conducted on 31 goat properties in New South Wales and
Queensland in 2013. This study has gathered information on goat herd management, reproductive performance and
animal health, and has identified constraints that may limit goat productivity. Producers from high-rainfall regions reported
having full blood Boer goats for stud breeding. In contrast, producers from pastoral regions had rangeland goats and Boercross
goats. Overall, 87% of the producers identified a natural breeding season in goats and 61% separated kids from their
mothers at weaning. The weaning age varied between 3.0 and 6.0 months. A total of 52% of producers castrated male kids.
Only 10% of producers used ultrasound to conduct pregnancy diagnosis on their goats. The reported pregnancy rate was
60% for the pastoral regions and 94% for the high-rainfall regions. The average prolificacy was 1.4 kids/doe and the
kidding interval was 12 months. Overall, 68% of producers fed their goat herd with supplements, with the exception that
most producers from western New South Wales and south-western Queensland did not use supplements. Producers
considered gastrointestinal parasites (61%) and body lice (48%) as the main diseases associated with their goat herds,
although only 52% mentioned drenching the animals with anthelmintics. In general, properties in the pastoral regions
showed low pregnancy and kidding rates, early age at first mating, high mortality rates, poor performance of Boer bucks
and lower weights and weight gain compared with properties in the high-rainfall regions. The survey has highlighted areas
that require further study to validate the observations of producers, for instance, factors that may be limiting the fertility
of Boer goats in rangeland environments, the incidence of diseases, the use of Kidplan and management activities to
improve goat productivity.
