A leading Macedon Ranges small livestock and poultry producer, Milking Yard Farms Bruce Burton, says he is catering to an entirely different section of the market to large, commercial operators.
But Mr Burton said smaller producers still faced too much regulatory red tape.
“The red tape has grown around the established industry and all of the sudden, small producers, niche producers, like ourselves, have come out of the woodwork,” Mr Burton said.
“’(It) just doesn’t work with small fragmented, niche players like us but the government authorities haven’t had sufficient mandate to change the way they do things, so the challenge for governments is going to be is that consumers are getting a voice.
“It’s consumers that elect government and they will have a voice around organics, a voice around welfare and – to a certain extent - around taste. I am hoping that voice will mandate change and drive things such as the raw milk debate and allow us to decide for ourselves if we want to drink raw milk.”
Mr Burton said Milking Yard, Trentham East, was currently producing meat chickens, but had also run a small flock of Dorper sheep and a herd of Angus cross-bred cattle.
The farm’s produce had won national produce awards and supplied some of Victoria’s top class restaurants.
“There is a rapidly growing segment of the population who want taste and the gourmet food experience - I figure a lot of that is being driven by a lot of cooking shows, we have a bit more disposable income and people are really immersing themselves in food,” Mr Burton said.
“They want the best they can get.”
Animal welfare issues and the desire for free range products were also driving the growing market, for boutique and small producers.
“Every small producer I speak to, doing this, can’t keep up with demand,” he said.
“I just can’t see it is a fad - the underlying needs, that are driving this growth, are too fundamental, the welfare of animals, that’s not going to turn off, clean organic food, I don’t see that turning off.”
Mr Burton said his first batch of Dorpers were sold through a local butcher and caught the eye of a leading Melbourne restaurateur.
He said the meat was aged, after developing to maturity.
“It has developed full fat, it is full of flavour and all the animals we have done, since then, has been to that formula.”
Steers, sold at Bendigo in the last month, topped the market.
“We now take the same approach with the chooks, they are 100 days old, full flavoured, hard boned and have three times the intramuscular fat of normal chooks.”
Mr Burton said commercial producers had nothing to fear from boutique, or smaller, farmers.
“There are different segments of the market – people will buy a lamb chop to cook for dinner, during the week, but on weekends they want something special, and that’s where we play – the occasional, indulgent, special food.”