1.  28  Farm THE weekly times
Ellie aims to keep as many chemicals off the
farm as possible, using organic fertiliser on the
rich sandy loam soil.
She drenches the cattle but rather than using
antibiotics, she gives them mineral licks she
makes herself using dolomite, lime, sulphur
dust, copper sulphate and seaweed meal. She
adds more or less of each ingredient depending
on what she observes the cattle are eating.
“The motto is you are what you eat, but
I want to know what I eat eats,” she says.
“The cattle need to eat well to make it worth
ingesting.”
While the herd is still in its early days, Ellie
sends about one or two animals to Radfords
abattoir at Warragul each month, aged
between two and three years of age. “I know
when they’re ready based more on their look –
they just look juicy, round and plump with a
peachy bum,” Ellie says
She adds that because they are grass-fed, not
sent to a feed lot, the marbling, or fat content
in the meat, is not high.
“Marbling is also about breed traits, how
much they’re fed, what they eat, how much
exercise they get.
“I’m not getting the same marbling as a feed
lot but they still taste beautiful.”
from page 26
Simple food chain: Ellie tends to
her herd, which are primarily fed
on pastures of fescue and rye.
 28  Farm THE weekly times