The evolution of the goat industry from feral to farmed is ramping up across rural Australia.

Key points: Growth supplement trials on goats under way

Growth supplement trials on goats under way Animals to be tracked for one year

Animals to be tracked for one year Increased demand means goats a viable option for farmers

A growing global appetite for goat meat has driven prices to record highs, prompting efforts to improve productivity on Australian goat farms to get the animals fatter, quicker.

Jake Berghofer and Emma Patterson currently run about 2,000 rangeland goats on their property, Springvale, at Eulo in south-west Queensland.

About 320 of the rangeland goats on Springvale are currently involved in a growth-rate trial commissioned by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA).

"We are looking at the growth rate of rangeland goats, a supplemented group versus a non-supplemented group," Ms Patterson said.

Rangeland goats at Springvale, in south-west Queensland. ( Landline )

MLA says the trial is important because there is minimal documented knowledge on the growth rates of young goats, with or without supplementary feeding.

A pellet supplement will be given to half of the mob of goats at each trial site, while the other half will be left to graze naturally.

The animals will be weighed monthly for a year, to track the difference in growth rates between the rangeland goats that are given the pellet supplement and those that are not.

"Every producer that I've spoken to is so keen and so interested in wanting to know the results of this," MLA goat project manager Julie Petty said.

"They want to take the results and the learnings from this work and these trials, implement them back on their own place to improve their own productivity.

"We don't have any kind of information like that at the moment."

Goats an unlikely saviour for farmers

Mr Perkins says goats are under threat from wild dogs and harvesting. ( Landline )

Rangeland goats have become the main game for some farmers who have previously only opportunistically harvested feral goats for additional income at critical times.

Nic Perkins is a third generation sheep and cattle producer from Dirranbandi, also in south-west Queensland.

He became a goat enthusiast about eight years ago after being given a goat and some crucial advice from a fellow goat devotee.

"We had a few feral goats on our place and we mustered them from his advice, put them behind a wire and have never looked back really," Mr Perkins said.

"We've just got a breeding herd and we sell everything that makes the weight, around 25 kilograms.

"I think we've got around about 1,000 goats on the place at the moment."

The goats on Mr Perkins' family farm are also participating in the MLA rangeland growth-rate trials.

He said efforts to evolve the industry to become more professional were critical.

"We're in unknown times," Mr Perkins said.

"They've [the goats have] never had so much pressure on them, with the wild dogs and with so much harvesting."

"That's evident in the prices. The supply isn't there, so the demand is going up and the prices are going with it."

Pressure to keep up with demand

As well as tracking the growth rate of the goats, Mr Perkins is also monitoring the grazing pressure on shrubs and trees across the properties involved in the MLA trials.

"We're seeing if the goats without the supplement are putting more pressure on our pastures," Mr Perkins said.

"It could be another benefit to the supplement, as well as the weight gain, but also not as much pressure on the precious pastures out here."

Mr Berghofer also wants to see the Australian goat industry evolve beyond predominantly opportunistically harvesting.

"We're trying to supply undersize goats to growers at the moment, trying to encourage that to happen," Mr Berghofer said.

He said the move was critical in order to keep up with demand.

"If we don't, due to over harvesting and wild dogs, we're starting to lose our numbers," he said.

"If we get to a point where the processors start to lose the numbers that they need to supply their overseas clients then we might start to lose markets, and if we start to lose markets we'll lose value in the industry."

See the story on Landline, this Sunday at noon on ABC TV.