Lakey Farm’s John and Tristia selling meat in CSA model and markets
These farmers don’t like to see any part of their livestock go to waste. Their meat packages cover all cuts, and their customers are up for the challenge.
JOHN Lakey describes himself at farmers’ markets as “like a Seventh-day Adventist with a foot in the door, and I’ll tell you about the deal”.
But the “religion” in this case is community supported agriculture, and sustainable farming practices.
John and his wife, Tristia, are on a mission — to reconnect consumers with the farm their food comes from, while farming sustainably.
The couple farm at Sunbury, on 130ha out of a total of 233ha of the farm that started as a soldier settlement for John’s parents.
While some of John’s siblings do share-cropping on other parts of the property, John and Tristia graze livestock and also run a vineyard.
“We’ve got 250-odd sheep at the moment, probably 30-odd cattle here, and we run about a similar herd of goats,” says John.
John and Tristia sell their meat at farmers’ markets and through a CSA scheme, whereby people buy shares in a farm’s projected harvest in advance, for a set period — in this case, a 12-month subscription in return for a monthly meat parcel.
They offer beef, lamb or mixed packages, with different cuts each month. The monthly beef box, for example, will contain 15 per cent prime cuts, about 45 per cent slow cook cuts, and 40 per cent mince and sausages.
“In about two or three months, a person getting a 3-4kg pack of lamb will actually get a whole lamb, but I keep track of exactly what they get and I keep rotating cuts for them. Same (for) the beef,” says Tristia.
“What we’re not doing is paddock to table in terms of to restaurants — we’re doing paddock to table to individual consumers. And what we also do is put recipes on our website and it’s a lot of guidance about how people should use the cuts.”
They started running CSA meat sales just over two years ago. Inspired by Tammi Jonas of Jonai Farms, and looking for an alternative to get meat to consumers, but not through restaurants, they turned to the CSA model.
They advertised on buy, swap and sell pages on Facebook and got so many hits on their website, it crashed. They now have about 50 subscribers.
These days they focus on their slaughtering and farmers’ market visits — where customers can pick up their packages — to the second and third weeks of the month.
“We did lose subscribers early on who didn’t know how to cook a blade roast, or deal with a slow-cook cut, whereas the people who have stuck or picked up recently, they really like the challenge and now one of our more popular packs going forward is a mix of mutton, beef, goat and lamb,” John says.
The CSA program supplies about one-third of the Lakeys’ income, while two-thirds comes from farmers markets. “Farmers markets are a really good return for us and we’re really grateful that the VFMA managed to keep their markets open,” John says of the impact of coronavirus. (At the time, they had been about to go back to Ballarat for first time since February. They attend markets in both Melbourne and regional areas.)
At the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, John and Tristia say they saw an increase in demand — their goat slaughter increased from one or two animals a month to five, and beef from one to two.
”There was a massive increase in terms of people trying to find product and meat from other locations rather than going to the supermarket because they were having difficulty in supplying,” Tristia says.
“It was fantastic they looked to farmers’ markets to fill that void. It has come back a little bit because the hype and hysteria, I suppose, has backed off, but because we have been there through it, people are still coming to us because they liked what they ate and the flavour.
“We had to buy in some livestock which we graze before we put through our business because we do want the flavour from the paddocks because the animals are what they eat.”
While they say their meat usually comes to within a dollar of the major supermarkets, Tristia says meat, as the product from a living animal, should not be cheap — “people should stop, and think, and value”.
Their shift to sustainable farming practices began in earnest when John started exploring ways to control bent grass on the farm. They went with a plan to spray-top pastures, then graze with the cattle and sheep.
“We got driven by the bent grass into an intensive grazing system — short-term grazing and then resting — and what we’ve found is by following that process for the last three or four years, a lot of our perennial grasses and many natives as well, have recovered very strongly.”
The vineyard covers 4ha, all pinot noir grapes, which the livestock are used to help mow. And their wine, once marketed under the Ray-Monde Deux label (Ray-Monde is the name of the Sunbury farm), is now marketed under the Lakey Farm name, with labels featuring some of the native insects and flowers on the farm.
Tristia says, as well as exploring ideas to start producing dairy products, they are also keen to find ways to make use of the hides, wool and fats from their animals — they want nothing to be wasted.
They also have a 100ha farm at Bacchus Marsh.
“Our journey has been a constant reinvention, and pushing out and discovery,” John says.
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