Irrewarra farmer launches paddock-to-plate business to mitigate price shifts

Charlie Buchanan, Irrewarra, said he started planning a paddock-to-plate process two years ago, and over the Christmas break, would prepare to launch Buchanan's Irrewarra Meats.

His beef will be processed and packaged at local abattoirs and then delivered direct to customers in and around the Colac and Geelong regions.

"We felt there was a need to take some of the fluctuations of prices in market into account," he said.

"The unfortunate part was in the last downturn, for lots of reasons, but none of the downturn in meat prices on farm are reflected in the supermarkets and butchers.

"In the past six months there's been a huge increase in paddock-to-plate efforts."

He said he had spent time researching red meat prices at butchers and major supermarkets to better understand the market.

"It's been very, very hard to get going because the abattoirs have been bunged up with high kill rates," he said.

"Farmers' livelihoods depend on making the correct predictions, we've been trying to take that fluctuation out."

Mr Buchanan said he had a heart attack in February, which put his project on hold, but he persevered with his paddock-to-plate passion.

"My little show is only small but our son's is a fair-bit bigger, and there's a real opening there for us to market our own meat," he said.

"We can treat our animals the way we want to treat them, we can use local abattoirs, Castle Estate and The Meat Crew.

"And we can deliver these animals to the abattoir in a safe manner."

Mr Buchanan said his great-great grandfather moved to south-west Victoria in 1843 as a surveyor.

He said he named the Glenorchy township in the Wimmera after his Scottish hometown, but eventually settled at Irrewarra.

"I know it doesn't suit everyone's personality but people need to know where their meat comes from," he said.

He said he had bought three purebred Wagyu bulls, and in January, they would take possession of a small Wagyu herd to breed with Angus cattle.

Mr Buchanan said the vendor-bred beef herd had daily feed with grass-fed pellets with a legume, lucerne base.

He said he often bought local produce to help support paddock-to-plate enterprises, and encouraged consumers to support farming communities.

"The Christmas message is for consumers out there to try and support the farming community, not just us, but anyone that tries to go paddock to plate," he said.