Meat and Livestock Australia is tipping 2016 as a cracker year for the goat industry and is urging producers to focus on farming goats to meet international demand.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 43 seconds 4 m 43 s Meat and Livestock Australia says high prices and strong export demand should attract more farmers to goat production ( Hailey Renault ) Download 8.7 MB

Australia is the world's largest exporter of goat meat, but the industry is struggling to fill export orders, leading to better prices.

Processors paid more than $5 a kilogram for goats in recent months, a 100 per cent increase on three years ago.

Graziers in New South Wales produced the greatest number of animals in 2014, followed by Queensland and South Australia.

The majority of goats processed every year are feral, rangeland goats, harvested by producers who use wild herds to supplement their traditional sheep or cattle operations.

Meat and Livestock Australia goat industry project manager Julie Petty said goat production had doubled over the past ten years, but would only continue to grow if producers committed to farming goats full time.

"What we would really love to see is more producers actually making a bit more of a commitment and taking that step to have infrastructure in place on their property and goat paddocks in place," Ms Petty said.

"So we have more managed herds in the industry, or goats behind wire," she said.

"Having a much more reliable supply base will allow us to grow and we have to make that transition from just relying on that harvesting."

In 2014, Australia shipped a record amount of goat meat to markets like the United States and Taiwan in a trade worth $241 million.

Ms Petty said exporters had no problems finding a home for the Australian product and were hungry for more.

Industry groups like MLA and the Goat Industry Council of Australia (GICA) have been working to attract more producers to the industry this year, including developing a number of tools outlining the benefits of goat production.

Ms Petty said the advantages go beyond goats' appetite for weeds.

"We've got some contract work happening at the moment trying to get a better understanding of rangeland goat growth rates so we can get better information out to producers," she said.

"You might be able to increase your stocking rates because you've got more usable land because goats can graze rougher country not suitable for sheep and cattle, and they're a fairly low maintenance and have a low cost of production in the rangeland areas because you don't have costs like crutching or shearing like you have in the wool industry."

Kid shortage drives up goat price

Despite the best efforts of MLA and the GICA to convince producers to get into goats, wide-spread drought in Queensland has reduced the supply of young animals.

Western Queensland goat breeder Colin Forrest has supplied a steady stream of kids into feed lots and farming operations for years.

He said drought had affected his ability to produce new kids for sale, and stud billy goats for his own farm.

"On our record year we marked 140 per cent (kidding rate), but we haven't had a kidding here for three years of any note," Mr Forrest said.

"We've actually pulled the billies out just to make sure nothing does get in kid while it's like this.

"We used to supply a guy with a feedlot and slaughterhouse in Richmond and back 18 months ago when things got bad he kept ringing but we just had nothing that would fit into the feedlot."

"Normally we supply Charleville as well with our older goats and we haven't' even done that lately."

Richmond feedlot operators Barry and Cheryl Nelson are enjoying the highest prices ever paid for their goats. A shortage in supply, and strong demand from the United States and Asia has pushed the price above $5 a kilogram. ( Hailey Renault )

North West Queensland grazier Barry Nelson introduced goats to his sheep and cattle feedlot in 2012.

When he started processors paid $2.70 a kilogram for his product, but this year he said his investment in goats was starting to pay off.

"We're slowly building our numbers up but it certainly looks good at the other end," Mr Nelson said.

"For anyone that's breeding them it's definitely made a big difference.

"It's very hard to find goats but they don't take long to breed up if you look after them so it's something you can start off with small and gallop along quite quickly."

Mr Nelson said he expected more producers to take an interest in goats once drought breaks.

"I hope people get into them because we need more supply," he said.

"I think with the price of cattle it will be very hard to purchase big amounts of cattle back so there will be people there to diversify into goats rather than cattle then.

"I can't see why the demand would go down, goat is the most widely eaten meat in the world I think do I don't see any reason why it should go down."