Australian Goat
Domestic goats (Capra hircus) were introduced to Australia in 1788 as a source of meat, milk and fibre. Feral goats are now widely distributed across mainland Australia, with the largest populations occurring in the semi arid pastoral areas of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
White is the primary colour of feral goats in Australia, although mixed colours and black are common in some regions reflecting the mixed origins of the early stock. The total number of goats living in the wild in Australia is unknown, and estimates vary from 500,000 to over 2 million animals.
Most goat skins are used as leather, as the hair fibre is of no value. Approximately 60-70% of tanned goat and kid skins are used as shoe upper material with the balance used in the manufacture of fancy goods, bookbinding, clothing and womens dress gloves.
Skins from young goats have high follicle density and low fibre diameter, which means that they are aesthetically acceptable and skins from animals less than 25 kilograms produce a fine grained skin.
Wild (feral) goats are delivered live to the meatworks for processing as game meat for domestic and export markets. Skins are all machine flayed with a typical assortment 80/20 Sounds/Cuts.
Drum salted, pickled and wet blue skins are offered as a "Run" selection excluding faulty and reject grades.
| Type | Average Size |
|---|---|
| Small | 3-4 sqft |
| Medium | 5-7 Sqft |
| Large | 7-9 sqft |
| X-Large | 9 sqft up |