FROM PADDOCK - Small producers having a big impact

FROM PADDOCK - Small producers having a big impact

Kevin Wyatt produces exceptional beef. His Angus cattle are bought by one of the most particular meat buyers in the state. Kevin’s production, however, is small. Tiny compared with most cattle productions. He turns off just 10 animals from his Main Ridge farm each year. But it is the small producers like Kevin who help maintain the rural nature of the Mornington Peninsula.

“The patchwork of paddocks, orchards, windrows and laneways are all artefacts of a rural lifestyle that started long ago,” says Kevin, a retired lecturer and passionate supporter of agriculture on the Peninsula. “Without farmers, the Peninsula would not be the beautiful place it is.”

Kevin is a big supporter of the Peninsula wine industry, working on the International Cool Climate Wine Show held here each year. He is also instrumental in the Red Hill Cider Show, which is held under the auspices of the Red Hill Show and is the second-largest cider show in the nation. However, his herd of 10 breeding cows, bull and 10 calves is his true passion.

To make his cattle venture viable on his 6ha farm, Kevin has enlisted the help of neighbours. He agists his cattle on neighbouring farms in return for payment in beef. Free-range, dry-aged, grass-fed beef. Kevin raises his cattle differently

to other farmers. First, he has carefully selected his herd of breeding cows to have excellent conformation – bone and muscle structure on which to grow meat – and they also have to be great mothers. He leaves the calves with their mothers for 10 months before weaning. The herd feeds on the rich pastures that grow in the deep clay/loam enjoying more than 950mm of rain on average a year. Kevin supplements grass with hay and silage that is baled on the farm. Although 6ha doesn’t sound like a lot of land, the paddocks are super-productive, protected from the prevailing wind by a broad windbreak of native trees. Kevin follows the tenets of regenerative agriculture, using natural fertilisers to feed the beneficial bugs in the soil. This microscopic army makes compost to feed the grass that the cattle eat. “I am not anti-chemicals,” he says. “I just prefer to use a whole lot less of them.”

We wander through the windbreak into the paddock. Blue superb fairy-wrens flit between the branches and a wagtail dances in the air, hunting the flying insects that we disturb. The animals are curious but quiet. They are big and are grown out until they are about 600kg. “There is a direct correlation between the way an animal is looked after and the way their meat eats,” says Kevin. “You will never get a tender steak from a stressed steer.” Kevin has teamed with O’Connor meat processors in Gippsland to slaughter his animals. “They share my values about animal welfare. They make sure the animals are looked after in the most humane way.” Kevin turns off his cattle in autumn each year. “It is a great pleasure to eat beef farmed here on the property,” he says. “Perhaps with a glass of local red.”

Buy Main Ridge Cattle beef from Mornington Prime Cuts.