Who wants to be a farmer???

We've been lucky over the last couple of years having one or another of our sons home. Well one of them has been in South America for nearly a year and the other has just gone to England! We've also had a young local lad helping us at times too, and now that we don't get too many backpackers coming this way any more (thanks to the Governments 2nd year visa changes) we have decided to find someone  who wants to be part of our growing business.

I've long been a fan of Joel Salatin and his concept of getting young people into the farming industry. So we have decided to advertise and hopefully find ourselves a young wannabe farmer. We want someone who is as passionate about healthy living as we are, and would like to really get involved in a sustainable lifestyle and regenerative farm. The first twelve months will be like an apprenticeship, but we really hope that the successful person will want to hang around and help us grow the business. All going well, there will be an opportunity for that person to have some ownership within our current business model.

The position will be called a Farmhand and will be paid under the Pastoral Award. If you or someone else you know is interested in this position, please email me for an application package, or pop over and have a little look at our internship website as it gives a little more information about us and the farm.

Click HERE for a link to the website. OR my email is: dawsonvalleyfr@bigpond.com

Who wouldn't want to work with something as cute as these piggies....

Price increase and next market date

Next Market - 4/5 June - Yeppoon and Rockhampton

I've been spending some time in the office this week. It's a necessary evil, but one I don't get to do very often. We had an English backpacker here for a week so I left him feeding so I could catch up on bookwork. This has been quite depressing, as I've had to have a realistic look at our figures and work out what money we are making (or not) and what money we need to be making to enable us to keep going doing what we are doing. Farming is the same across all industries - the farmer gets the smallest share of any profit, and does the majority of the work! The dairy industry has highlighted how most farmers are price takers. We decided to opt out of that vicious circle, by producing  a product that we could market ourselves. Unfortunately the competition in the market by the bigger corporation farms mean that we still have the price dictated to us by market influences.

As I mentioned in my last post, we need to find another option for processing our meat. Monto Meats have been very good to work with and they have been our butchering facility since the beginning. There have been issues at times, with one of the main drawbacks being that they are 3 hours drive from us! I've investigated a few different options, but haven't yet worked out an alternative, so stay tuned for more on that front!

We haven't really been charging enough for our meat and so we haven't really been keeping on top of the cost of production. As I've mentioned in the past, the last price rise was due to an increased cost of packaging, and so we haven't had a price rise to reflect any increases in cost of production. Free range pig farming costs a lot more per pig than a large industrial shed. We do of course get more for our product, but because we produce so few animals, the individual cost per animal is also a lot more. Eg in a shed that houses thousands of pigs, the infrastructure (capital costs) can be shared across all those pigs. Their direct costs are less also as they are more mechanised. It's hard to have mechanised systems out in the paddock.

Basically, we have to charge more to enable us to survive financially. This next lot of market animals will still be processed at Monto Meats, and they will continue to do it until we can sort out an alternative. There packaging price will be double what it has been. We pay a price per kg dress weight, but the amount of packaged meat is a lot less than that, so a $2.50/kg increase in packing means approximately $4/kg increase in the end product. I have therefore re-worked the pricelist to reflect this increase and to put a little rise in our takings. I know that people think that by cutting out the middleman it should be cheaper, but basically we, and the butcher are the middle man and that middle bit still costs!

I have updated the price list - just click on this Link to Price List. While Monto Meats continues to do our meat, we won't be able to take big pre-orders. If you want a particular cut of meat, I can organise that, however I won't be able to get them to pack orders for me, so I can't really take them. I will have to put orders together on the Saturday morning in Yeppoon markets.

Please also note that now that we are now selling whole pigs to Daly's Quality Meats in Clinton, Gladstone and so we won't be delivering to Gladstone now. Please ask him for our pork and tell him that you are one of our customers. I'm not sure if he's doing grassfed beef, but if he's not, tell him that he needs too (I already have!). He often has goat too (not ours yet, but hopefully in the future it will be). Thank you so much to the Gladstone guys for your never ending support, it has been so greatly appreciated!

Long Weekends and Price increase warning

This weekend is a long weekend and Kim and I are actually going to have a weekend away! I'm so excited to be having a few days camping R&R at the beach.......and there is no internet service!!! So if anyone wants to order for next weekends markets, sorry, but it's too late! I won't be back in service until Monday, so you can still send an order through, it just won't be guaranteed to be filled until I get the meat on the weekend.

The markets are on NEXT weekend, which is the 30th April and the 1st May at Yeppoon and Rockhampton respectively. This is also a long weekend, so hopefully everyone is going away this weekend and will be around for the next to come and stock up on meat. We'll have Pork, Beef and Goat this time.

We will be making some changes to the prices and the ordering process after this market. We have been forewarned by our butcher that he will be increasing the price of meat processing considerably. As yet I don't know how much it will be, or if we will even be remaining with this butcher. However, even if we change butchers, it will be costing us considerably more to process the meat. The last price increase I did was due to a change in processing cost, so I actually haven't had a price increase for some time to cover our cost of production increases. It costs a lot more to raise free range pigs as it is more labour intensive per pig than the conventional sheds and we don't have the economies of scale to enable us to run big numbers and spread the overhead costs out. We also don't have an endless supply of cheap backpacker labour any more.

To be blunt, we need to be charging more for our pork or else we won't be in business. We are just about to undertake an expansion in pig numbers, which will involve putting in more fencing and we will need to be able to employ someone to help us. If we can run more pigs we should be able to improve our bottom line, which will hopefully help us to keep producing our tasty pork.

If you are also travelling this weekend or next, please stay safe and enjoy your time away.

Ordering Time Again!

First of all, I must remind people that we are going to be missing a market this month. We won't be in Yeppoon or Rockhampton until the 30th April and the 1st May respectively. Gladstone delivery will be on the 30th April - 2-3pm at Puma Service Station, Calliope.

We will have Beef, Goat and Pork available for sale this time. The pork is still a little short in supply, so if you would like to order, it may make it easier for me to work out how many pigs to take over. Please do this as soon as possible.

The demand for our product has increased over the last 6 - 12 months and we are still trying to breed enough pigs. We sell pigs regularly to butcher shops in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and because this is every week, it's a constant job to make sure we have the pigs we need for them. As well as butchers, we supply packaged meat to Organic and Quality Foods and occasionally to Spar in Emerald. And of course the Blue Truffle in Rockhampton is supporting us by using our ham!

Unfortunately our market customers seem to be the ones that sometimes miss out while we keep the business customers supplied. For this I do apologise, and the only thing we can do is try and make our pigs reproduce quicker! That is not always so easy in a Free Range System, especially when it's hot. I think the pigs would rather be lying around in a wallow than getting lovey dovey!

Locavore Living

Over on my other blog healthyfarminghealthyfood.blogspot.com.au I've been writing about being a locavore. Head over there and read more about my locavore living experiences there. We had a locavore party at our farm last weekend and all the main ingredients were local, including a pig on the spit.

We want people to support us, and even though I've always been interested in a local food industry, I've become even more passionate about supporting, not only local farmers, but local businesses as well. I love the fact that I go to the markets every two weeks (approximately)and can pick up all my vegetables there at the same time. I do buy some non-local produce, but that is mostly onions and potatoes and other "treat" type fruits and veg that I can't get locally.

I will be at the Yeppoon and Rockhampton markets this weekend coming - 2nd and 3rd of April, so come along and support us, as well as some of the other great local farmers and those other stalls that make local "things" - soaps, candles, food, relishes and jams etc etc.......

We will have pork, bacon and ham available - plenty of it this weekend! There will be a little bit of beef that will be discounted, and unfortunately no goats! With Easter being in the middle of the two markets, there wasn't an opportunity to get beef or goats processed for this market. We will have everything next market. Next market will also be the Gladstone delivery weekend, so Gladstone customers, please get your orders in as soon as possible to make my planning easier.

Cheers for now,
Lucy

Reminder of Markets

Just a reminder that I'll be delivering to Gladstone next weekend - 19th March. Meeting place will be Puma Service Station, between 2 and 3pm. If this time doesn't suit, please contact me and see if we can arrange something else.

Yeppoon Community Markets will be Saturday the 19th March and Rockhampton Kern Arcade Carpark markets on Sunday the 20th.

PLEASE get pre-orders in by this Sunday night.

Just a note, if you have subscribed to receive emails from this webpage, please do not hit reply to make your order, please order by clicking this link: dawsonvalleyfr@bigpond.com And if you have subscribed and you also receive an email from me direct, please reply to that one and tell me to take you off my email list.

We are having a few supply issues again with pigs, as some of you will have noticed last week. This weekend we should have plenty of bacon again and hopefully more roasts, loin chops and belly roasts! We will also have some more delicious "organically" farmed beef and goat - all grass fed and grass finished! Please remember that we are not certified organic with our meat, but we farm the animals without the use of chemicals etc. The pigs are fed non-organic grain, however because we mix it ourselves, we ensure there is no GMO's and other nasties.

Dawson Valley Free Range is the only local farmer with locally produced meat, that attends these markets in CQ. We are very grateful for the support we receive at these markets and if you are ever dis-satisfied, please don't hesitate to let us know........

Markets in March

The year is just flying past.....I have so much I need to do and so little time to do it! It's market time again this weekend, so if you are in Yeppoon or Rockhampton, come along on Saturday or Sunday respectively and get some of our meat.

We will have the usual Beef and Goat, but limited cuts of pork. Our pig numbers were down a little bit so for this market we will have plenty of bacon, but no loin chops, belly roasts, butterfly steaks or spare ribs. We will only have a little bit of ham, roasts, usa ribs (plenty), shanks (who's tried these?), mince and diced.

Next market, which is scheduled for the 19th and 20th of March, we will have plenty of pork available again (they've grown a little bit more!) Also, a reminder for GLADSTONE customers - please get your orders in as soon as possible, as your delivery is on that same weekend. I only have one order so far, and so I will need a lot more if I'm to go down there. I would love it by Sunday if possible, as that will make it easier for me to work out how many pigs I will need to take to the butcher next week.

Good News!!! Blue Truffle is now using our ham, so please go along and support them (and us). I think it's really exciting to see a local establishment using local meat - even more so because it's our local meat! They are also one of the best places to eat in Rockhampton, so even more reason to go along and support them!

Remember by supporting us, you are helping to support a local food economy as well as supporting ethically raised and sustainably farmed meat. I'll finish this post off with some pictures taken recently - the pigs are loving the green grass!

Weaners out in the paddock

a fairly new mum sitting up to have a chat with me

the Dry sows at feed time.