Goose farmers Herb and Lucy Mackenzie are pleased to report that not a single goose was lost during the long two-day journey from KI, off the South Australian coast, to their property, where they operate U Goose.

They farm geese and cattle on their 2500-hectare property and the addition of the 1100 KI geese brings their total flock from around 1900 to 3000 birds.

After the geese were freed from their transport crates, the flock went straight down to one of the farm’s dam to stretch their legs and have a drink.

The KI geese were doing really well, enjoying their new home and making good use of the goose down undergarments, as it regularly got to below freezing this time of year.

“We spoil our geese and treat them like royalty,” Mr Mackenzie said. “They are on pasture all the time and are also fed daily.”

He said geese were very family orientated and stuck together, so it would take a while for the two flocks to integrate.

The KI geese would also have to get used to foxes, as there are no foxes on Kangaroo Island, but the Macke farm did have a huge amount of fencing and also had alpacas and three new maremma dogs to guard the geese.

Mrs Mackenzie said she saw the Gumtree advertisement from KI farmer David Huxtable about wanting to sell his entire flock.

She said it was only natural to want to keep his flock together and decided to get them to all come to her farm at Guyra, where they would add a new line of genetics to her own flock.

Mr Huxtable decided to get rid of all his geese after having trouble with health authorities approving the family value-adding kitchen operation.

Related story: Goose farming comes to an end on KI

All of the geese were put in crates and loaded up onto the back of semi-trailer for the trip across to the mainland on the ferry and then across the eastern states up to Guyra.

Mrs Mackenzie said she was elated that every single one of the geese made it, with not a single loss.

She praised the expertise and care shown by poultry transport expert Lyall Dunn from the South Australian town of Gawler, who she recommended for any poultry transport jobs.

Mr Huxtable was the only other commercial goose farm in Australia, so since his closure, the Guyra business is now the only goose growers in Australia.

The U Goose product is all grown, processed and value-added on the farm at Guyra where they have an incubator for eggs, an abattoir for slaughtering and a large commercial kitchen for the manufacture of various goose products.

Mr Huxtable before shipping off his geese was lamenting that facilities such as these were badly needed on Kangaroo Island to allow its own poultry industry to exist and flourish.