Beachport Berkshires: Mark Wheal on his pig business and the Limestone Coast Food and Agribusiness Cluster
SA farmers Mark and Kate Wheal have a big profitable plan for their town. It starts with free-range pork, a boning room and beer.
When Mark Wheal is on a roll, there is no stopping him.
The South Australian farmer is a self-confessed “ideas man” who has jumped at every opportunity to diversify his family’s Limestone Coast livestock and cropping operation since taking the helm a decade ago.
Starting with cattle, sheep and a small amount of grains, Mark and wife Kate have expanded their cropping mix and turned a small foray into free-range pigs into a booming pork business that supplies butchers across three states.
Trading as Beachport Berkshires, the Wheals process up to 50 pigs a week, selling pork locally, to butchers across Melbourne and Adelaide and most recently into Tasmania.
It sounds enough to keep any farming family busy.
But it’s just the start of Mark’s plans to add value to the grains and livestock he and Kate produce across 1400ha at Beachport.
“It is the ultimate circular economy,” Mark said. “I’m trying to keep what I produce on the farm, and while doing that value-add.
“I’m trying to deliver a hobby niche product on a commercial scale. I sometimes think I’m mad … that’s what my wife tells me most of the time.”
Understandable, considering what Mark has in the pipeline.
Determined to better control the quality of their Beachport Berkshire pork all the way to the consumer, Mark has built his own boning room, due to start operation next month.
He and a group of like-minded farmers have also, this January, launched the Limestone Coast Food and Agribusiness Cluster, to raise the profile of their region’s local food, drink and producers.
Then there’s his plans to turn his wheat and barley into beer, with the couple three months ago opening their own microbrewery.
And finally, Mark hopes that venture – Beachport Brewing Co, built on the same waterfront property as his nearly completed boning room – will be the first stage in a $10 million development of the seaside town’s Beach Rd precinct, with accommodation, dining and showcase of local produce all part of Mark’s plan.
Ambitious, yes.
But also achievable if success of the Wheals’ Beachport Berkshires brand is anything to go by.
PIGGY PROFITS
Mark and Kate run 150 Berkshire sows across 60ha, processing pigs at about five months of age, weighing 60-70kg for fresh pork and 70-80kg for smallgoods production.
While his Berkshires are now big profit drivers, accounting for more than 25 per cent of the farm’s income, Mark said adding the heritage breed pigs wasn’t initially motivated by income.
“It actually started as a bit of a meat-eating exercise, growing out a few pigs to fatten up and eat ourselves,” he said.
They bought two little pigs to stock the freezer, choosing the breed for its delicious reputation.
But the initial pair – Miss Piggy and Mick Jagger – started to breed before they were slaughter ready, and soon two pigs became 30.
“It all got a bit out of hand,” Mark said. “When they turned over the front lawn of our garden, like literally churned it over so you couldn’t see a piece of green, my wife said you are either getting rid of them or start making a business out of it and doing it properly.”
Mark chose the latter.
Mark starting by selling to butchers and to wholesalers, but it soon became clear free-range Berkshire carcasses could not match wholesalers’ generic carcass grid expectations, set by white pigs.
“Being in a free-range set up, the pigs have the ability to eat a lot of grass,” Mark said. “We don’t count that in as a feed ration, but they do consume a lot of it
“At certain times of the year, with higher energy components of the rye grass in spring time, it lays down more fat. But that is what a lot of chefs love about (Berkshire pork), there is so much flavour in it.”
The unconventional Berkshire carcasses prompted Mark to branch out with his own brand.
“That is when Beachport Berkshires was born,” he said. “We wanted to deliver a good quality product and something that we really enjoyed to eat. And have a product with provenance as well.”
Initially he marketed the brand in Beachport, “to showcase local produce to the local community”, and then branched out to major cities.
On the farm, the pigs’ 60ha is divided into about 30 paddocks and the sows and piglets have unrestricted access to the outdoors, with shelter offering shade in the summer and warm straw bedding in winter.
Each paddock also has a sprinkler so pigs can cool down in wallows on hot days, all requirements vital to their APIQ Free Range Certification, which demands a high standard of animal and environmental welfare.
Mark uses a rotational grazing model, to give perennial pasture and soil time to recover between periods of pig grazing. Some paddocks are kept empty to allow for pasture regrowth. Frequent soil tests make sure no areas suffer from nutrient build-up, with shelters and feeders moved regularly.
Cattle and sheep are kept separate to the pig operation, for biosecurity reasons.
To maximise return from each sow, the Wheals use artificial insemination, choosing genetics based on litter size and carcass quality.
“Our real profit driver is piglets per sow per litter,” said Mark, who sourced some of his genetics from Linton Batt of Black Label Berkshire Pork in Western Australia.
Linton has been breeding from stud-registered pedigree pigs for the past decade, supplying meat to wholesale and retail markets nationwide.
Just like Linton, Mark said his main focus was producing meat with the ultimate eating quality.
“That is the one thing a Berkshire has over and above other breeds,” Mark said. “And that is the one thing we don’t want to compromise.”
Mark has also tried to apply the concept of intramuscular fat scores to his pigs, using ultrasound scans to eliminate breeders with lower IMF scores.
“I’m very conscious when I get new genetics in that they adhere to our standard on IMF,” he said
THEY ARE WHAT THEY EAT
To produce melt-in-the-mouth pork, nutrition is paramount.
“Like any pig farmer will tell you, the biggest cost is feed, but also the most important thing for what the pig looks like at the end – whether it is fat levels or coverage – is feed nutrition and making sure you have that balance of energy, protein and amino acids,” he said.
The Wheals sow 400ha of crops every year, including barley, wheat, broad beans and canola.
Virtually all the family’s 500 tonne annual barley harvest goes to the pigs, and some of their wheat and beans as well.
Minerals and amino acids are added to the ration, to ensure the Berkshires have all the nutrients they need.
“All the feed that is fed to the pigs is milled on farm on a weekly basis, with a disc mill and mixer, from our homegrown cereals and legumes,” Mark said. “Sometimes we have to fill the gaps with bought-in proteins – legumes, lupins, peas or beans,” Mark said.
After working so hard to maximise meat quality, Mark said it was great that some buyers – particularly butchers in Melbourne and Adelaide – were willing to pay a premium for the Berkshire breed.
But there was still a lot of consumer education to do, he said.
“It is the different markets that we deal with that I find quite interesting,” he said. “You have a local market that really doesn’t recognise the free-range pigs as an alternative to normal pigs.
“Then in Adelaide, it is very tightly held market by wholesalers.
“Then in Melbourne or Sydney, the prices are different again, but they acknowledge there is a difference in production system, and they are willing to pay for that, which is nice.”
In a bid to expand his customer base across all of those markets, Mark has invested $250,000 on converting and equipping part of the town’s old waterfront fish factory into a boning room.
The building stands on a property directly opposite Beachport’s iconic jetty. The Wheals bought the property two years ago, for its existing infrastructure, including cool rooms, which seemed the perfect site for the boning room.
They have employed a butcher, who will start in August and break down carcasses so Beachport Berkshires can cater for restaurant, cafe and supermarket customers that want bespoke and primal cuts.
With seafront views and a central location, however, using the block for just processing was a waste, Mark thought.
“This block is too good for just a boning room,” he said. “We thought why don’t we put a brewery here.”
BREW UP A PLAN
Beachport Brewing Co opened its doors 11 weeks ago, selling “$9 pints with million-dollar views”.
They have so far invested $500,000 in the facility, brewed 7000 litres of beer in seven varieties, and started distilling gin. The plan is to use their own barley and wheat in the near future.
“At present we’ve been sourcing malts from Bintani but have barley in the silo ready to get malted,” Mark said.
With inquiries from across Australia about buying cans and kegs of their brews, Mark is optimistic the brewing will be another winning idea.
His biggest decision now is how to best use what’s sitting in his silo.
“It is that compromise between making beer or feeding the pigs,” he said.
“Beer is really nice to consume and the pigs are nice to consume. And they all use barley.”
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