Reference no: EM133535913

Ruminant Production Systems

Beef cattle, sheep, or goats

Type: Case Study

Task Description:
One case study report is to be completed.

Students will choose one (1) from three (3) options based on beef cattle, sheep, or goat enterprises.

This assessment task evaluates student's abilities, skills and knowledge without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (Al). Students are advised that the use of Al technologies to develop responses is strictly prohibited and may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.

Goat Production Case Study

The Situation
You have been appointed to set up and manage a 35,000 ha property near Bollon, Queensland. The average annual rainfall is about 400 mm and about 65% falls between October and March. It is not unexpected to have less than 25 mm of rainfall in April, June, August and September. Summer temperatures often exceed 40oC (on average 14 days per year, mean maximum is about 28oC), while frosts are common in winter (approximately 14 frosts per year - in June, July and August, mean minimum is less than 12oC). Almost all of the property is available for grazing, the rest being roads, homestead, sheds (including a usable 5 stand shearing shed) and yards. There are two dams on the property, each approximately 60 ML in size. Two bore drains run through the property. The property was well fenced with hingejoint 8/90/30, with 12 internal paddocks of various sizes. Each paddock has a water trough and eight of the bigger paddocks have bore drains running through them. The property has not been grazed by livestock for over two years. The pasture species are largely temperate perennials however Rhodes Grass is evident in summer. There are a number of varieties of subterranean clover found on the property. There are no major weed problems, but timber re-growth is a problem in over half of the paddocks and needs to be managed. There is evidence that many feral goats and pigs have taken up residence on the property, and thus it is likely that predator control will be necessary for wild canids.

The owners of the property live in Brisbane and have stated that as long as they are ‘in the black' (making some profit) they will be happy.

The Task
You are to provide the owners with a report that covers the following points (see below). For each of the points you will also need to give a brief explanation of why; you don't need to go into a lot of detail but make sure your reasons (justify what you are doing) are clear. For example you could refer to specific QDAF farm notes or NSW Agnotes and the like - if you do you should include these in an appendix (not part of the word count). Anything that is included in the appendix must be referred to in the main document. You must include a management calendar of events. This is very important and should be quite clear. You must establish a 25 year rainfall pattern so as to assess variability. This Figure is also important.

The property owners are happy for you to have any breed of goats on their property; and your report to the owners of the property should detail the likely costs of establishing the production system you are advocating and the likely income it will

generate once fully established. Use current prices and reference the source of the economic inputs and outputs.

Breeding
• Type (breed) of goats that you will purchase.
• The number of does you will run.
• The number of bucks you will run.
• How many progeny will be retained on the property?
• The breeding program to be used (e.g. crossbreeding, pure breeding).
• What criteria will be used to select does and bucks?
• Will you buy in does or look to be self replacing? Why?
• When (months - why then?) will does be mated, when will their offspring be weaned?
• Stock replacement policy and a breeding program.

Health
• Flock health - vaccination program (what and when); parasite control (what and when). You need to provide names and dosages of drugs/chemicals to be used, and what monitoring you will undertake to ensure your health programs are effective.
• Predator control - why, how, with what and when?

Nutrition
• What nutritional supplements will be used, and why?
• When will nutritional supplements be used, and why?
• Where are these supplements going to be sourced and will they be ‘cost effective'?
• How will you legally manage the timber re-growth so it does not negatively effect production?

Markets
• The market(s) that you will target ~ include market specifications for all products, expected prices, and include saleyards or abattoirs you will use if appropriate to your report.

Economic assessment
For each recommended change you must include a financial statement - how much will it cost? What will the return on that investment be? This can be done in a table.
Include an overall assessment detailing if the plan if profitable, and if not in the first year, when would it be?

This report is not an insignificant task - it will take time to do this task well. Your lectures provide one source of material but you will need to look up papers published from that region.

Report
• You should write this as a professional report to your client
• It needs to have an executive summary where the key recommendations are outlined. Clients are busy people and if the Executive Summary does not read well nor clearly outline what needs to be done then they are unlikely to read the rest of the report or ask you (and pay you!) to do another.
• The rest of the report can follow the above headings.
• Detailed support material can be in Appendix sections. This section is not part of the word count.

References in full and formatted for APA style.