Macabee: From corporate law to raising Dorper sheep at Toodyay, WA

WHEN something isn’t working, Anthea Brown fixes it.

Mixed platter: Anthea Brown runs Boer goats as well as Dorpers and beef cattle on her farm at Toodyay in Western Australia.

2017 FARM MAGAZINE INNOVATIVE FARMER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

MACABEE ESTATE

Anthea Brown

TOODYAY, WA

Anthea Brown on her farm.

WHEN something isn’t working, Anthea Brown fixes it.

A proactive approach is working brilliantly for Anthea, who left a high-flying career in corporate law to make a living raising Dorper sheep at Toodyay in Western Australia.

She manages the 880-hectare Macabee Estate, which she bought with her parents in 2004.

Since taking on the challenge, Anthea has made improvements to just about everything, from animal and land management to the operation’s sales channels and customer relations.

“There are highs and lows,” Anthea said. “It is challenging and at times physically and emotionally exasperating.

But it’s satisfying. I feel like I am making a difference.”

She certainly has made a difference to her family’s land.

At first, Anthea and her family ran about 2500 Merino and South African Meat Merino ewes, growing crops on much of the property to produce livestock feed for the sheep.

Before long, Anthea realised the stocking rate was pushing the land beyond its limits, sheep were struggling to put on weight and the soil received no rest.

She turned her tenacity and research skills to finding a different way to manage the farm.

Researching breeds, she found Dorpers have high fertility, strong maternal instincts, non-selective grazing habits and high meat yield. “The low maintenance was very attractive,” Anthea said. “No mulesing or tail-docking, reduced flystrike and no shearing.”

The family reduced the stocking rate to about 1200 sheep and converted the entire flock to Dorpers.

Simultaneously, Anthea adopted biological principles to care for the soil and pasture, using soil and leaf tests and adding natural fertilisers and humates — decomposed plant and animal matter — to reduce the reliance on chemicals.

Finally, she started selling directly to consumers — first through the Subiaco Farmers’ Market in Perth, and then through a butcher shop in Toodyay, which Anthea and her family bought in 2016.

“I’m the face of the market, I get to tell our story and how we raise our animals,” Anthea said. “You are engaging and educating people at the same time.”

The latest feather in Anthea’s cap is her stud operation, selling breeding rams to local customers and exporting embryos from stud ewes to China and South America. She has also diversified into Boer goats and beef cattle.

Anthea’s impressive resume, initiative, flexibility and unwavering focus on the needs of her animals and land make her a standout performer.