Fiona Aveyard focuses on Tullamore Outback Lamb brand
Tullamore lamb producer Fiona Aveyard has built her Outback Lamb brand from the ground up and is sharing the lessons she has learnt along the way.
IT WASN’T always easy for Fiona Aveyard to see a bright future for her agricultural dreams.
It’s not that the NSW lamb producer lost sight of plans to build a brand – they just became hidden in the constant dust storms that racked central NSW during long years of drought.
Fiona is founder of Outback Lamb, based at Tullamore.
She said focusing on the brand’s future was a welcome distraction from the day-to-day grind of feeding stock across 1600ha.
“We all know it will rain again and things will get back to normal, but when you are chin deep in the next dust storm, you do begin to wonder,” Fiona said.
Her product and brand-development efforts have gained attention, with Fiona asked to be a keynote speaker at the Animal Brand and Marketing Forum in Taiwan last year. She’s also been part of the Farmers2Founders program.
“I’m the sort of person that is results orientated and I want things to be done now, but the drought forced me to be more thoughtful about decisions around Outback Lamb, so changes to our business were careful and deliberate,” she said.
Those changes include moving away from supplying whole lambs, to instead focus on creating a range of premium products, including lamb sausage rolls that currently sell out at the Condobolin Bakery and look set to take on the culinary world when COVID-19 restrictions ease.
Fiona’s farming motto is to strive for that sweet spot where planet, profit and community are all winners.
Much of her brand’s healthy reputation has been built through regular, authentic posts on Instagram.
“We need to take control of our social license, to tell our story and not let some other group opposed to farming try to tell it,” Fiona said. “We might be everyday farmers and don’t pretend to be anything else, but we are also not prepared to just produce a commodity.”
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