Glenn admits he was a little unsure about farming goats but Carolyn had always liked the animals.
After the couple viewed Angora goats during a trip to Fieldays at Mystery Creek, Hamilton, this planted the seed for Carolyn wanting goats, “but Glenn said a stern ‘no’ to Angora goats.”
Carolyn saw Hēpara Cashmere founder and South Otago farmer David Shaw on Country Calendar and after contacting him through Facebook, established a connection.
In 2019, David was visiting Gisborne and met with Glenn and Carolyn at their property to talk Cashmere goats.
“He talked a bit about what we could do, increasing stock units by 10 percent of goats and not change any other stocking ratios,” Mr Prebble said.
“I thought ‘we’ll give it a go’.
“At the end of the day if we got 100 goats and it didn’t work out we could just get rid of them,” he said.
The following autumn of 2020, David teed up 100 female Cashmere hoggets for the couple from a farm in Whakatāne.
They now have a total of 190 Cashmere goats, with just under 100 does kidding this year.
“We’ve got about 40 female replacements that will come in and go to the buck next year,” Glenn said.
“We haven’t broken any records at this stage. We’re starting to get the blueprint of getting it sorted, but getting that kidding percentage has been a bit tricky.” Thankfully, after months of rain and two cyclones, the Gisborne region has been experiencing decent weather — until the most recent heavy rain — so they have been getting good percentages.
“The F2s are white and their feet condition is really good, possibly helped by the rocky country they are on. In terms of hardiness, as they get older they are much better,” Glenn said.
The Prebbles’ property is a mix of easy, medium and very steep country.
The goats are predominantly run on the steep country, but once they have kidded and tidied up weeds, they are sent down to paddocks where the bulls are run.
“We are doing that in one area but we want to move into doing that on more of the farm,” he said.
“We should be able to run these goats on country that we can’t really farm, especially the country that we can’t get cattle on because it’s too steep.
“Sheep don’t really like the steep country either, they won’t push into it and graze it properly.
“We want to maximise the production of that land.”
The Prebbles have started on the Cashmere fibre route and have shorn their herd for the first time this year.
They began with F1 hoggets, and now have F2 progeny.
When it comes to managing goats Glenn likes farming them as they are not as much work as sheep.
“For example, goats don’t need dagging and don’t get flystrike.
“However, just like sheep they can get worms which is something that needs to be managed.”
Primarily a beef operation, the Prebbles are running 60 percent cattle, 38 percent sheep and 2 percent goats.
“We plan to increase our goat numbers to make the ratio 56 percent cattle, 34 percent sheep and 10 percent goats.”
“At this stage, we’re not looking at cutting our sheep numbers and replacing them with goats. We’re just looking at having 10 percent stock units in goats and keeping our other stock numbers the same.”
The result of holding goats in just one paddock to battle weeds has been a winner for Glenn and Carolyn.
The paddock, which had “every weed under the sun in it” including hore hound, Californian thistle, Scotch thistle and winged thistles, is now literally weed-free.
Glenn said the change was noticeable and as they increase their goat numbers, he hopes they will be able to ditch aerial spraying.
“The land has got a lot more opportunity once you take the weeds out of it and we have just fenced up a new paddock to put some kids and does in,” he said. That paddock has a lot of blackberry and some inkweed.
Fencing in the goats has not been an issue either.
Glenn has used outriggers “just above knee height” to strengthen existing fencing on the property and reports that holds the goats just fine.
Next on the agenda is working towards rotational grazing of them.
“We’re trying to get more paddocks to come online and will then increase goat numbers as well. Once rotational grazing is under way, this will improve animal health and lessen the potential worm burden to manage.”
The Prebbles see goats as a potential benefit for many Gisborne farms.
“They won’t suit every farm system in the district, but I strongly believe there are a number of farms that could benefit from their weed munching ability.”
Around Gisborne there will be many farms with variegated thistle issues, blackberry, Bathurst burr and prickly pear.
“The weed control of those through aerial spraying is a massive cost.
“If you can integrate goats into your system to clean up those weeds, it’s got to be a massive saving.”
The cream on top for sheep and beef farmers was making money out of the Cashmere fibre and goat meat, Glenn said.
“I reckon they’re awesome and we’re pretty happy with them.
“We’re certainly going to be increasing the numbers and I see a decent future in them.”
