AuctionsPlus commercial goat listings for the 2021-22 financial year totaled 154,041 head - a 25% rise on FY21. Buoyed by widespread positive seasonal conditions and fruitful breeding, goat listings have continued to rise as demand remains robust across all categories to reach an overall clearance of 76%.
Listings as seen in Figure 1, have followed a similar pattern to FY21 despite a notable surge in listings across the third quarter of FY22 with a record of 34,915 head listed in January 2022. The most recent June quarter of the financial year has seen goat listings reduce with a total of 18,298 head offered across the three-month period - a 41% decline YOY yet still above the same period in FY20.
Queensland accounted for 57% of goat listings for the financial year with 87,442 head - a 39% rise from FY21. NSW listings accounted for 42% (64,196 head), up 0.4% YOY while SA and Victoria had a total of 51 and 2,352 head respectively. Looking to regions, Southern Queensland was the largest listing region for the year, making up 37% of the total, followed by Western NSW with 33%. Western Queensland listed 22% of the total goat offering, while the NSW Slopes and Plains and Central West NSW accounted for 4% and 3.8%, respectively.
On the purchasing side, Queensland secured 63% of sales with 83,563 head, with Longreach and Charleville accounting for the two largest purchasing towns across the year. NSW secured 29% with 37,827 head while Victoria registered a significant rise in purchases from FY21, accounting for 8% of total sales, with 10,797 head - up 621% YOY.
First cross Boer/Rangeland does and bucks accounted for 19% of total listings with 17,756 head (12%) of does and 10,783 head (7%) of bucks. Clearance rates across the bucks reached 95% with prices ranging from $90-$800/head to average $246/head or 592c/kg lwt. Doe clearance rates reached 61% across the year with prices ranging from $109-$450 to average $194/head or 770c/kg lwt.
Purebred Boer does and bucks accounted for 7% of listings with Boer does totaling 9,458 head (6%) and bucks accounting for 924 head (1%). As increased value is placed on bloodlines and breeding quality amongst goats, both categories registered significant price rises from the previous financial year. Boer does averaged $498/head – up $261/head with a clearance of 86% while bucks averaged $856/head - up $398/head from FY21.
Boer/Kalahari bucks and does also reaped significant prices across the year with both categories registering a rise in listings from FY21 - indicative of the rising number of managed goat enterprises continuing to evolve. A total of 4,932 head of does were offered, accounting for 3% of listings which returned an average of $395/head. For the bucks a total of 3,299 head were offered which averaged $445/head and reached a clearance of 74%.
The number of goat sales which were interfaced with AuctionsPlus rose by 86% YOY with a total of 13 sales held across the financial year, up from 7 sales held in FY21. A highlight from the stud goat sales included the second annual Red and Black goat sale in November 2021 at Cobar, NSW which saw Australian Buck records tumble when “Marrakesh” sold for $21,000.
Broadening the scope to national slaughter data, recent MLA data has revealed July 2022 levels are sitting considerably higher than the same time last year. Goat meat production in the first quarter of 2022 rose to the highest level since 2018, driven by higher slaughter volumes and the increasing capacity at abattoirs following labor shortages and closures due to COVID. Victoria and Queensland are leading the state-based goat slaughter for the month as revealed in figure 5 with both states rising by 39% and 77% YOY, respectively. Figure 6 also reveals the significant rise in goat slaughter across 2022 to date, albeit following a similar pattern to the previous two years while production levels are expected to rise approaching the warmer months.