She may be only 19 but Alice Sewell can remember the time when graziers were giving away the goats on their properties, or regarding them only as the way to pay for their annual holiday.
These days Ms Sewell, nearly a veteran in an industry just starting to realise its potential, is so confident in the ability of goats to offer a future that she's studying vet science with the aim of specialising in goat health.
It's her firm belief that there's not enough practitioners with a good understanding of goat biology and needs, to the detriment of the industry, but it's something she aims to rectify.
"They're not sheep," she said. "The industry is starting to look at things like Kidplan, and I'd like to see where AI and ET takes me and others."
Even watching her local vet, Terri Eckel confront one of their "big, smelly bucks" with a broken leg wasn't a deterrence.
Ms Sewell has been operating her Gundare Lane Boer goat stud on the family property 22km south of Augathella since 2014, alongside her parent's Droughtmaster stud and commercial cattle operation.
It was her mother Tracy who introduced her to the world of kids and does, when she was seven years old, and she bought them because her own mother had them.
"That was when I discovered I loved them," Ms Sewell said.
As well as having very individual, sometimes endearing personalities, the fact that they are small enough and affordable enough to give young people entry to primary production is reason enough to love them, she said.
"As a younger person, I feel like I'm able to do big things with my life, thanks to goats," is how she put it.
Because of her university commitments, Ms Sewell has concentrated on operating a stud rather than a commercial enterprise.
It comprises 45 bucks and 92 does, or 137 head in total, a mix of standard and red Boers, and has been making private paddock sales to date.
Bucks she offered at a sale in Charleville last year made between $1200 and $1600, which she said was a lot more than she'd made in the paddock.
She will be taking eight bucks and two does to the inaugural Pinnacle Boer goat sale taking place at the St George Showgrounds on February 2.
Some of the bucks have been sired by red Boers, and Ms Sewell said she found they and her standard Boers had equal survival rates.
"I don't find any difference between them - they're all survivors, they all have great mothering instincts, and they all put weight on," she said.
It's all part of a debate that Ms Sewell says is helping her grow as a person, as the industry grows.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
