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Farm factsMelbourne natural Grass Fed beeF

Ellie Mitterer farms a herd of 70 Wagyu-Angus cattle on a 40-hectare farm at Nar Nar Goon in West Gippsland.

She sells the beef under her Melbourne Natural Grass Fed Beef brand, delivering 10kg meat packs to Melbourne households.

She plans to expand to farmers’ markets within the year.

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Once slaughtered, carcasses are taken to a local butcher, where they are processed into various cuts and made into mince and sausages, and bagged. Ellie then creates 10kg packs containing two each of scotch fillets, eye fillets, rump and round steaks, as well as a mix of diced, stir-fry, roasts or topside.

Using her PrimeSafe-accredited mobile refrigerator van, Ellie then distributes directly to customers, with one beast supplying about 12 customers each month.

She says she doesn’t have a defined geographic area for her sales, although tries to avoid dropping a single pack at a long distance, preferring instead to have several

customers in the same region.Most customers have come from Facebook,

or word of mouth, with her website useful in providing customers with more information.

“Most of my customers are families who want to know the system is humane and like more flavour in their meat,” she says.

THIS year Ellie has completed her food safety supervisors course, which will

allow her to register with her local council to sell at farmers’ markets. As soon as increased cattle numbers are ready for slaughter, within a year or two, she’ll begin selling at farmers’ markets in the east of Melbourne.

“I’d also like to work with other farmers who don’t have time to deliver their lamb, pork or chicken. I get asked for these meats but there’s only so much I can produce,” she says.

Ellie says her vegetarian days haven’t been completely abandoned, while she’ll never eat meat seven days a week, she enjoys tucking into her own steak or burger.

“I try to make it as natural as I can in a commercial system,” she says.

“I love knowing they are taken care of, they aren’t in feed lots, they’re able to socialise, move around, eat grass, and wreck things.

“I love that I give them a better life.” F

They are what they eat: (from far left) Wagyu bull, Mickey; part of Ellie's herd of 70 grass-fed Wagyu-Angus cattle; calves still with growing to do before they are abbatoir-ready, which Ellie says is “based more on their look” than age.

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A U G U S T 2 01 5 Farm 29