They saw firsthand the goats’ preference for browsing woody plants on the property, including prickly acacia and dogwood.
“Then what we noticed was that the Mitchell grass was still there, so you could have cattle come in behind them,” Ms Burton said. “We thought, right, we can change our red meat production to be three different animals.”
As well as buying back a quarter of their breeding cow numbers, goats were the first ruminants reintroduced to their mix of boree wooded downs and soft gidyea country, and Dorpers followed.
“Dorpers are just great little meaty sheep that grow really quickly,” Ms Burton said. “In five months we’ve got fat lambs ready to truck next month, down to Fletchers in NSW.
“Basically our sheep and goat numbers are our main business now.
“We’ve gone from being 100 per cent beef cattle to being fat lamb and goat producers that still have some beef cattle because we really like them.”
