Beef with a personal touch from Grass Roots Beef at Holbrook

CUSTOMERS can usually smell Leanne Wheaton and her husband Gordon Shaw before they see them.

Up to the plate: Leanne Wheaton and her husband Gordon Shaw of Grass Roots Beef at Holbrook, NSW.

CUSTOMERS can usually smell Leanne Wheaton and her husband Gordon Shaw before they see them.

Smells of osso bucco, oxtail stew or steak and rosemary fill the air around their Grass Roots Beef stall at farmers’ markets at Wagga Wagga in NSW and Wodonga.

While the couple are relative newcomers to value-adding — for the past 50 years the Shaw family’s cattle and sheep have been sold through conventional saleyards — Leanne and Gordon have quickly learnt how to entice customers.

“We want to sell the whole animal, and people aren’t sure how to cook with lesser-known cuts for instance. In the year we’ve been selling Grass Roots Beef I’ve handed out hundreds of recipe ideas,” Leanne said.

“Both of us like to cook and share food with friends and family, so it’s not hard for us.”

Leanne and Gordon have a 1600ha farm at Holbrook, NSW, living at a smaller property just outside Albury, running a self-replacing herd of 500 Hereford breeders, as well as 2500 crossbred Poll Merino ewes for wool and prime lambs.

The Holbrook property, originally run by Gordon’s parents as Wantagong Poll Merino stud and Lark Rise Hereford stud, is managed by Peter Stead.

VALUED APPROACH

IN THE years since Gordon, his siblings Jim and Cathy, as well as Leanne took over the property, they have run a commercial herd, selling through AuctionsPlus, and at saleyards including Wagga Wagga for sheep and Barnawatha for cattle.

But a year ago, Leanne said, the family decided to value-add their own brand.

“For us, it was a chance to div­ersify ... we knew there was growing demand for grass-fed beef and there’s been a growth in farmers’ markets and consumers wanting to connect.”

Grass Roots Beef processes one animal a week, of about 180kg dressed weight, slaughtered at Gathercole’s in Wangaratta or Tallangatta Meat Processors, then butchered at Peters and Son at Lavington, NSW.

The meat is then sold at farmers’ markets or through private sales, while the couple continues to market the majority of stock through conventional sales.

BULL RUSH

CATTLE are joined for six weeks from November, with one bull generally purchased each year, choosing genetics based on pigmentation (to avoid the threat of eye cancer), as well as high milk yield, muscle and moderate birth weights. Calves are yard weaned and then each day Peter works around the calves on motorbikes and horses to get them accustomed to humans.

“From birth to the time they leave we handle them calmly through the yards, no dogs or whips,” Peter said.

Calves are vaccinated and drenched “and that is basically it”.

Paddocks are rotated, with lambs grazing on country previously run with cattle, and vice versa.

The farm is undulating, varying from granite to alluvial flats and as such is prone to flooding, with annual average rainfall of 860mm.

“It seems like the trend is for wet summers and dry autumns,” Peter said. “Although this year we’ve had one of the best late autumn breaks for many years. It’s been fantastic.”

IN THE MIX

ABOUT 80ha of pastures are renovated every year with phalaris, clover and ryegrass, in addition to 50ha of rye made for hay and silage.

The Shaws do not buy in any supplementary feed and they have an extensive annual tree-planting program, up to 800 each year, with Gordon currently working fulltime as a carbon trader.

With a stocking rate of three dry sheep equivalents per hectare, Peter said the aim was not to “flog the place”. Pastures are annually soil tested and receive 80-100 tonnes of lime per year, as well as 200kg of single superphosphate to a third of the property every year.

Most heifers are retained for breeding, with the bottom 15 per cent — based on temperament and conformation, especially sound feet — as well as those not pregnant, fattened to about 330kg and sold.

BORN TO PERFORM

AS FOR the sheep, Merino ewes are joined to White Suffolk rams in November for an autumn lambing, so they are weaned in August to take advantage of the spring flush.

The flock annually produces 100 bales of 19-micron wool with a 75 per cent yield. Adult sheep each cut about 5kg of wool.

Leanne said there were no plans to value-add their lambs.

“For now the focus is on maintaining the quality of beef,” she said.

“People complain beef in the supermarket is so variable. Because our animals are grass-fed and low stress, customer feedback has been fantastic.”

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