Beef@theFarmGate: A focus on soil leads to a more successful farm

CHANGE is a constant in the lives of innovative farmers, no more so than for Ian and Rosanne Trevaskis.

The right touch: Ian and Rosanne Trevaskis, on their farm near Orbost, say the secrets to good meat are creating healthy soil and minimising livestock stress.

CHANGE is a constant in the lives of innovative farmers, no more so than for Ian and Rosanne Trevaskis who have taken a family dairy farm, transformed it into a beef operation, added sheep, and moved into selling direct to customers online with a following of more than 350 regular buyers.

The farm near Orbost in East Gippsland was originally settled by Ian’s grandfather in 1908. Ian and Rosanne took over the farm in 1989 and for lifestyle reasons opted out of dairy. They started their beef operation with some crossbred dairy heifers and a Belgian Blue bull and more recently have moved to a Belgian Blue-Angus bull.

Theirs has been a constant path of learning. They have participated in Meat and Livestock Australia’s BeefCheque education program which introduced them to rotational grazing, and learned about Environmental Management Systems through a local meat co-op where they tackled problems of erosion and water quality.

Regenerative agriculture is now the order of the day for Ian and Rosanne, who farm with their daughter, Jo, with the belief that if they concentrate on the health of the soil, success across the rest of the farm will follow. They have a rotational grazing program in place and use only natural fertilisers.

In 2004 they established Beef@theFarmGate, selling meat to customers online. To keep the animals as stress-free as possible, cattle are loaded at 4am and sent to a nearby abattoir for immediate processing. Meat is sent to a butcher at Orbost or Bairnsdale and hung for 10 days. They have a customer base of 350, and sell at four farmers’ markets.

Two years ago they added Wiltshire Horn sheep to meet demand from customers for an alternative meat that was as good as their beef, and last year saw the first batch of lamb join the offering.

For Rosanne, it’s all about maintaining their vision of farming from soil to plate. “It’s not just the health of the land or the animals,” Rosanne says, “but human health that’s important to us. We can’t help but think natural, uncontaminated, unpolluted grazing with humane slaughtering is the way to go.”