Opinion by Garrick Batten from Substack
Introduction – Garrick Batten of Nelson has a long history with goat farming and Garrick writes from a huge agricultural background over 50+ years in processing industries, farming livestock and horticultural crops, agricultural management consultancy and diplomacy in NZ and overseas. He has been a well known contributor in press, journals, on radio and TV, field days and conference platforms locally and internationally. He has authored 3 books, numerous pamphlets and contributed to others.
Opinion:– The recent trade agreement with India came from years of work. Specific exclusions for New Zealand were dairy products, onions and goat meat. You can imagine giving away the latter as a negotiating tactic to get the other gains.
Goat meat might not be important to New Zealand, but it would help control the feral population. A nutritious, universal meat that can be eaten by various religious groups. There are twice as many goats as sheep in India, and goat meat cuts sell for up to $15 a kg.
It’s a market we could develop in the next negotiating round, because we need pastoral goats on our hill country. Our contribution wouldn’t dent the Indian goat herd of 150 million, producing $NZ8.6 billion of goat meat.
Garrick Batten – The Goat-Father
Any wild animal is a resource to be managed. Extermination via pest phobia are not resource management.