Officer paddock to plate keeps growing

The couple run a herd of about 100 on their 101-hectare property in Officer South, which has been in the family since 1952.

Mr Beard said it had been a goal to start a paddock to plate business, now aptly named Meat Me At The Gate.

"It's been a bit of a thing of mine, in the back of my head, wondering if we could do direct to public," he said.

"Twenty years ago this was a dirt road and now suburban Melbourne's right at our doorstep really.

"A couple of thousand cars a day go up that road now, you only need a small percentage of them to stop and you'd make a go of it."

They started selling direct to the public in April last year, right as the impacts from coronavirus were starting to be felt.

He said if anything, the pandemic boosted the business.

"The biggest thing that helped us was the whole meat scare... not only did Coles run out of toilet paper but they also started running out of meat," he said.

"There was one fortnight there where we sold out in three days."

The business started by selling and delivering 10-kilogram bulk packs and advertising on social media.

In September they bought a cool room trailer to showcase the meat in the display window and get set up as a farmgate operation.

"Those deliveries died down a little bit but the farmgate stuff picked up," he said.

"The farmgate's gone really well for the last six months, every month it's just got stronger and stronger."

The farmgate is open on the first and third Fridays and Saturdays of each month with the majority of the customers coming from the Officer and Pakenham areas, although there are some clients who travel up to 45 minutes to buy direct.

He said they had also been asked to sell at the Berwick farmers market, which would take the amount processed up to five bodies a month.

About 80 per cent of sales were to repeat customers and the goal was to keep building the client base.

He said while the bulk packs were still available, customers now tended to buy smaller packs of their favourite cut.

Steaks were always popular, but they also offered other cuts including schnitzel and sausages.

His 14-year-old son Riley had also started selling eggs at the farmgate, and had built up to a flock of 70 hens.

Building a sense of community was one of the drivers behind selling to the public, he said, and it had been especially rewarding to hear feedback from customers.

"Majority of people just want to know the person behind their food," he said.

"It's amazing how hungry people are for relationships, even just in terms of their food and where it comes from."

He said the business was active on social media and tried to keep customers engaged with the stories behind the scenes.

Mr Beard said he predominantly used Angus/Friesian F1 heifers and enjoyed the animal husbandry side of the business.

They now calve almost all year round to ensure supply is maintained.

"The actual breeding side of it and getting animals right, even in terms of what we buy in, bulls that we use, it all adds to eating quality," he said.

"Even when we sell to wholesalers, we'd take five a week up and do it ourselves in our cattle trailer, just so we knew how they were getting there, what they were like when they were getting there, how they were standing up."

After trying a few different breeds he settled on Charolais and is now breeding his own.

He began this journey about three years ago with a Mount William Charolais heifer that was flushed and artificially inseminated with Canadian sire, Canadian Downtown.

"I got a couple of beautiful bulls on the ground from him and a heifer and we're just starting a little breeding program ourselves," he said.

"I feel after having the Limousins and the Belgian Blues, and we used to eat them ourselves as well, having the meat from the Charolais-cross animals even eats better.

"I've always wanted to sell to an end product standard, not what I see in the paddock standard."