While recently trying to reduce the wastage of his imperfect eggs, Zac and Alana Jeffries, Providore Farm, Narrawong realised that what may be considered a defect in a product for one market could be the perfect fit for another - man's best friend.
The couple realised that their pasteurised free-range eggs that had been cracked or pecked by chickens were safe for dogs to eat, even though they weren't for humans.
"An egg every few days for your dogs are actually really good for their coat, and that was in the back of our mind before even having any chooks," Zac Jeffries said.
"We looked on the Department of Agriculture's website and it did say that we can't sell [cracked eggs] for human consumption.
"I'd noticed a few people had mentioned that they'd give an egg to a dog, so this was definitely a thing out there."
After confirming with the Department of Agriculture that selling the cracked eggs was all above board, the couple approached the local Portland pet shop to sell them for dog consumption only.
It is one of the many ways the farm looks to reduce wastage, with Mr Jeffries saying it was "soul destroying to throw away things you work so hard for."
He also said the farm was trying "value add" to what is produced on-farm, which also led him down on a path to sell offal as pet mince.
The farm's core business started earlier this year is a door-to-door delivery of fresh, local produce, which Mr Jeffries said was booming despite more people feeling comfortable in heading back to the supermarket post-COVID.
It did take time for the couple to develop a business strategy, with Mr Jeffries saying the couple "spent years trying to work out how to direct-sell beef, but it was always just incredibly difficult just trying to work out all the logistics of it."
But recent changes in Victorian legislation had made distribution easier, as long as their meat was processed at a licensed abbatoir, was cryovaced packaged, and their home had an approved-designed kitchen.
As the business developed, other opportunities popped up to add to their delivery program, like stocking wood smoked pork from Warrnambool butcher Crackling Smallgoods and honey from Warrong apiary Grumble Bee.
A great online presence was also integral.
"When we started building our website and realised that we could do shipping, deliveries and all kinds of stuff through this website platform pretty easily," Mr Jeffries said.
Mr Jeffries, who bought chickens in March to expand on his beef operation is looking to buy a second batch of chickens to keep up with demand.
But he said he was always looking for innovative ways to diversify cashflow.
"When a lot of people think [about] farming, I think they think of the actual management itself, like how they raise animals and how to raise beef," he said.
"The actual business aspect of farming is vitally critical and if you're going to succeed, especially for new farmers, you need to think of that."
"We're in our mid-30s, we've got a pretty high level of debt and three young kids, so the pressure is on... and at the moment, we're exploring more things that we can add into our label that can be shipped, because once we can ship we're broadening the range that we can get to people that can buy from us."
Mr Jeffries and his wife Alana co-ordinate every Saturday to deliver across the Portland region and word-of mouth chatter through the community recently convinced them to service Port Fairy, Koroit and Yambuk.
"I'm standing on their door as the business owner, saying 'here's my product' and so you develop that connection there," he said.
"They then tell their friends and it just really goes a long way to building our rapport."
However, while farm gate and home delivery sales are their prominent sale method, Mr Jeffries said there were still some "challenging conversations" with business owners, who buy cheaper eggs from large wholesalers, who may not want to spend more for their product to sell in their store.
"The challenge is that people are sometimes comparing a box of caged eggs with a box of pastured free range eggs from a family business, not a corporation, and I don't find that a realistic comparison at all," he said.
But Mr Jeffries said many more businesses are finding value in stocking local product, and he stressed that supporting other local producers was his one of his main priorities as well.
"Some businesses, to their credit, will say if there's a local product available, they will buy it and they won't push us down on price, because [it's] fair from the work that that's put in and and it also represents a marketing point on our menu for our customers," he said.
"So rather than just have them say, 'this is eggs and bacon', and not draw attention where the eggs come from we can say 'these are Providore farm eggs', and they can actually make a point of that."
