Farmer survey to assess the size of the Australian dairy goat industry.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand the commercial food-producing Australian dairy goat industry.

METHODS: We contacted all licensing boards and telephone surveyed a large sample of Australian dairy goat farmers producing food products on demographics, production and labour.

RESULTS: Jurisdictional licensing boards confirmed there were 68 licensed dairy goat farms in Australia in 2016. We surveyed representatives from 41. Of the farmers surveyed 20 were female and 19 were male; 81% were over 40 years old. The median number of milking goats per farm was 96 and the median total number of goats per farm was 150. The mean number of litres of milk produced per milking goat per day was 2.5. A total production of 9.6 million litres of milk was reported from these 41 farms alone in 2016, suggesting an increase in production since 2012. Production included 60% sold as cheese, 18% as fresh milk and the remaining as milk powder or other products. Most of the respondents (73%) supported the development of an industry group.

CONCLUSION: If the farmers surveyed are representative, we estimate that in 2016 there were 30,550 milking goats in the Australian national herd, producing 16,867,792 litres of milk with a farm-gate value of AU$20-27 million. This is a significant increase on the estimates made in 2009 and 2012 and suggests the industry is expanding.