Ever thought of your cattle or sheep as ‘Free Range”?
Here is an example of how not all farmers fit the perception of them as ‘red-neck’, ‘I need to bugger the environment to feed you city slickers’, cranks.
David Graham may be best known for his roles in Big Brother and Dancing with the stars, but his core livelihood is sheep meat farming.
He says that,
”Free range lamb is a natural product – unlike fed-lock lambs, which are kept in a small yard and fed continuously.
Mr Graham and his ‘paddock to plate’ group believe that Dorpers are a breed of lamb to watch: the kangaroo of the meat industry that Ross Garnaut is talking about in terms of lower emissions.
”Australia has to get smarter breeds on the land and this is one solution,” said general manager Peter Athey.
They also found that cutting out the middle man and selling direct worked best from a financial perspective. The auction markets gave their farmers only $26 a lamb while the supermarkets valued the same animal at $300. ( Ed’s note: Perhaps this is more an indictment on the existing sales systems than anything!)
Read More of ,The Age article here….
Do you think the main take-out from this article is that;
1. A new sales system is needed to give producers better value?
2. Farmers can make money and control their own destiny?
3. Farmers can afford to actively respect the environment and their stock?
4. Something else?
What do you think?
Please leave a comment below
