Goats conference well received

The inaugural NZGoats conference courted plenty of interest in Queenstown last month with a field trip to an Boer goat farm one of the highlights.

A healthy turnout attended a very successful goats conference, held in Queenstown last month.

The conference brought together farmers and interested others -- such as veterinarians -- from the meat and fibre goat sectors; Mohair New Zealand (Inc), the New Zealand Boer Goat Breeders Association (Inc) and Meat Goat New Zealand.

In addition, the event was the inaugural conference of NZGoats, an organisation established by Mohair NZ and Meat Goat New Zealand and operating under the Federated Farmers umbrella to add value by fostering the development of a reinvigorated and unified approach to sector issues.

The first day a large group travelled to Roxburgh to visit an Angora goat farm, where they heard about the expertise gained by Bill and Irene Campbell over many years of commercial mohair goat farming and the day concluded with an informal dinner at the venue -- Rydges Lakeside Resort Hotel.

The following day contributing organisations held their general meetings, with Janet Brierley awarded the Council Cup for services to the mohair industry.

There were almost 30 entries in the three fleece competitions, won by Ray and Donece McEwan (the Jim Wickens Memorial Shield and the 3kg Kids Fleece) and Gary and Ann Boyle (the Weather Fleece competition).

On the Saturday afternoon, the group travelled -- courtesy of the Shotover Four Wheel Drive Club -- to the extensive, high country Boer goat farm of Dave Aitken in the Gibbston Valley.

While the weather conditions unfortunately limited the extent of this trip -- a circumstance alleviated somewhat by a visit to a local establishment that served a range of cold beverages -- the visit was well worthwhile as it enabled Angora goat farmers to see the challenges that a high country operation presents.

The day concluded with the conference dinner at the Skyline Gondola restaurant.

The Sunday saw what was the highlight of the conference for many; the inaugural NZGoats conference.

There were high-quality presentations from five guest speakers. The first two speakers provided highly relevant and very practical information to goat farmers. Richard Shaw from AgResearch spoke on his research into gastrointestinal immunity and parasites in goats and the extension of his work using CARLA testing to the goats sector.

Ginny Dodunski from Totally Vets Ltd spoke on the Wormwise for Goats programme and some practical ways in which goat farmers can best manage this sometimes challenging problem. The Federation wishes to thank Beef + Lamb New Zealand for enabling Richard and Ginny to attend the conference.

The third speaker was Anna Campbell from AbacusBio Ltd, who spoke on the importance working with partners in the value chain to ensure that customers are confident about the integrity of the food that we produce -- and also the importance of knowing what product attributes customers value.

Fiona Carruthers from Beef + Lamb New Zealand spoke on the keys to effective communication with customers about the nutritional attributes of meat, illustrating her points by reference to a number of actual promotions.

Richard Thorp, the chief executive of Lean Meats Ltd, provided a refreshingly candid view of the life of a goat meat processor and the challenges he faces in getting product in front of customers.

A particularly valuable aspect of his presentation was his thoughts on how goat producers and processors can work better together to add value to the sector.

The conference finished with a facilitated discussion session in which the group considered the best way forward over the coming year.

A comprehensive debate on issues such as the challenges that goat farmers face and what the future of the sector might look like instigated proposals for the NZGoats executive group to consider and act on over the coming year.

- For more information about NZGoats contact the NZGoats chairperson Dawn Sangster, email d.sangster@xtra.co.nz or phone 027 444 7731, or David Burt email dburt@fedfarm.org.nz