WANGARATTA grazier Bob Andrews is set to expand his dry-aged beef business, when he opens a new coolroom at his Old Kentucky property.
Mr Andrews said he had received advice from a former Primesafe inspector, before building the new coolroom, at a cost of between $85 and $90,000.
"There won't be many of them around like that," Mr Andrews said.
"There is a lot of rubbish going around about dry aged beef - unless you have a stand alone cool room, in a butchers shop, you technically can't dry age beef for 21-40 days.
"It would be a slime ball," he said.
Mr Andrews said he worked with "Your Everyday Gourmet" butcher's shop, in Wangaratta, to market his meat under his Londrigan beef label.
Dry ageing meant about 10 per cent shrinkage, but it concentrated the flavour.
"It makes it a lot more tender."
Alongside the new cool room, Mr Andrews said he was opening another butcher's shop, in mid-July, to further expand production.
"People are coming in and asking for dry aged meat, mainly because they like getting beef which is tender and has great taste," Mr Andrews said.
"We have offered some smaller blokes to join the group and we could hold up to 65 bodies a week in the cool room" he said.
"One end of the coolroom will hold primals, we can age for 100 days, for the high class restaurants," he said.
Natalie Hardy of Brooklands Free Range farms at Blampied said it might be possible to take up dry ageing, in the future, if Koallah Farms abbatoir at Camperdown was agreeable.
Brooklands mainly runs Berkshire pigs, but also has a small herd of British White, Angus and Hereford cattle, which are processed through Koallah.
"We would probably like to do it, down the track - there are a lot of people asking for it, at farmer's markets," Ms Hardy said.
Brooklands sold its meat at Clunes Farmers Market and she said "demand would be strong", if dry aged beef was offered.