1.  26  Farm THE weekly times
N
OT too many cattle
farmers are reformed vegetarians.
But Ellie Mitterer – who farms
a herd of 70 Wagyu-Angus cattle
on a 40-hectare farm at Nar Nar Goon east
of Melbourne – says she wasn’t against the
concept of eating meat when she chose to be a
vegetarian.
“I stopped eating meat for years because I
didn’t like the food production system, and the
product from the supermarket had no flavour,”
says the 35-year-old.
“So I saw no point in eating something
that didn’t taste good and no point in eating
something that wasn’t healthy.”
Therefore it makes perfect sense that when
she bought the 40 hectares in 2011 and
decided to raise cattle, under her Melbourne
Natural Grass Fed Beef brand, she chose the
breed based on taste.
“I went to the butcher and ordered various
eye fillets from Angus and other breeds.
The frying pan decided for me – I wanted a
Wagyu-Angus cross,” she says.
“Now I enjoy a couple of steaks and burgers.
I know what my cattle have eaten, how they
have lived and I know what I’ve consumed
hasn’t been mistreated.”
Ellie says, despite growing up on the
outskirts of Melbourne, she had an early
fascination with farm animals.
“My parents say even when I was little I’d
prattle on about horses and cows. You know
how you’re sometimes drawn to something for
no apparent reason, well I’m drawn to cows,
even though I knew nothing about them,” she
says.
Ellie left school and worked in a variety of
jobs, from night clubs to stables, but it was
when she completed a diploma of horticulture
in her late 20s that “the penny dropped”.
“This is where nutrition comes from, how
minerals bind in the soil,” Ellie says. “The
picture was pieced together in my mind.”
So in 2011, bored with the suburban grind,
she bought the Nar Nar Goon property, opting
for the area because it was commutable to the
city, fairly flat, fertile and ideal for cattle.
She admits her knowledge on cattle farming
was “zero” but has since asked lots of “stupid
questions” and relied on intuition and
commonsense to establish the property.
“Because it’s my own money, I couldn’t
afford to make heaps of mistakes,” Ellie
says.
Ellie opted for Wagyu because, aside from
the good taste, they have low birth weight,
easy birthing, and are a relatively quiet
breed.
In 2012 she bought a full-blood Wagyu
bull – registered as Honourable Warrior,
but who Ellie has dubbed Mickey – from
western Victoria, as part of a package that
included 20 Angus cows.
Since then she has bought and sold cows
and calves to selectively breed, aiming to
improve genetics by breeding with mainly
Angus, but the occasional Black Baldy, to
the point she now has 34 breeders and a
total herd of about 70.
The herd is grass-fed on pastures of
fescue and rye, with only the occasional
supplementary feed of hay.
Continued page 28
Greener
pasturesEllie Mitterer has completely transformed her life
from city girl to country devotee, vegetarian to
cattle farmer. Sarah Hudson reports