A LOCAL family – including a a self-described beef tragic – have set up what they believe to be the only on-farm boning room in the Nambucca Valley.
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The WM Meats project is being run by Trevor and Tracie Welsh and their eldest daughter Megan and her husband Ritchie Mann at a Taylor’s Arm property bordered by Bakers Creek.
And while still in the earliest of days, the adage of ‘you’re going to need a bigger boning room’ is already ringing clear.
“The inquiries are just amazing. We’re supplying Foodworks in Macksville, a wholesale butcher in Coffs and the general public,” Trevor told the Guardian.
“We’ve been sending to Taree, Forster, Port, Kempsey, Tamworth, Armidale, Newcastle and South East Queensland. We’ve even had inquiries from Karratha in Western Australia.”
But Trevor stressed the venture is not in competition with the Valley’s butchers.
“We’re not here to take any business away from the butchers. In fact we recommend the local butchers. But we are in opposition to the big supermarket chains,” he said.
The production chain sees the family buy weaners which are finished on grass and grain on a 100-acre rolling property.
“We run about 150 head here and the reason we can do that is because we rotate the paddocks and they always have access to grass and grain,” Trevor said.
“My personal favourites are the British-bred cattle – I’d eat steak every night if I could.”
Once finished, the beef is killed in Frederickton and hung, cut and packaged back on the property at Taylor’s Arm.
The investment in the boning room included a new fangled machine which cryovacs the meat to a tray ready for sale.
“We can supply anything from an eighth of a beast through to a quarter, half and full and we’ve set up a payment plan for young families. It’s cheaper than retail and delivered to their door by the happy farmer,” Trevor said.
The Welshs have just added pork and lamb to their sales’ list and place a big emphasis on Nambucca regionality.
“We’ve been committed in using locals to get the boning room set up and everything else,” Trevor said.
In the growing age of slow food and low ‘food miles’, the future looks bright for this family venture.