Goat data project helps propel industry

The Goat Industry Data Collation and Tracking Project started in 2016, co-funded by Meat & Livestock Australia and NSW Department of Primary Industries, with the aim of bringing together data relevant to goat production.

The project used data from the National Livestock Identification System as well as levy data collected by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, aerial survey data from different states and data from NSW's annual land and stock returns.

Another key part of the project was establishing, the National Goatmeat Supply Forecasting Committee, whereby industry experts use their knowledge and the data available to predict supply and explain trends within the sector.

MLA program manager for sheep and goat productivity Melanie Smith said it had been a key goat levy funded project to help improve, collate, track and report on goat numbers in Australia.

"The project has increased goat industry access to, and reliability of, data for supply and market forecasting, which has historically been a challenge for the goat industry prior to this project," she said.

"The data and information generated from this project, in conjunction with project establishing a National Goatmeat Forecasting Committee, has been a key success to this project.

"MLA is working closely with NSW DPI and Goat Industry Research Development and Advisory Council to explore opportunities for to extend the project and continue to making this information accessible to the goat industry."

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Project leader Trudie Atkinson from the NSW DPI said having sufficient data was important for supporting the developing goatmeat industry.

"The entire goatmeat supply chain within Australian requires this information for decision making, there is just a critical need for reliable supply and processing data for industry development," she said.

"Before this project basic information was just not available to the industry... just really simple things such as population estimates and the number of goats being supplied from each state and region.

"Industry really lacked that capacity to project supply and set production targets.

"We sat in strategic planning meetings and the industry stopped short of setting targets because they just didn't have that basic information at hand so we've really filled that gap with this project."

Ms Atkinson said the NSW DPI had submitted a proposal to MLA to extend upon the work.

"It's fundamental that the industry keeps having access to what's happening with supply and processing trends and maintains that capacity to forecast supply because it is critical to industry development," she said.

Ms Atkinson said data gaps that be addressed in future include the number of breeding females in Australia and distinguishing between the number of goats supplied from managed and unmanaged production systems.

The National Goatmeat Forecasting Committee had predicted that the industry would be able to supply 2.3 million goats for processing in the 2022/2023 financial year, but several factors, including price and wet weather, have meant the industry is not on track to meet that projection.

In the first three quarters 1.3 million goats have been processed, with 520,000 goats processed during the third quarter, the biggest processing total since the third quarter of 2017/2018.