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28 Farm THE WEEKLY TIMES Ellie aims to keep as many chemicals off the farm as possible, using organic fertiliser on the rich sandy loam soil. She drenches the cattle but rather than using antibiotics, she gives them mineral licks she makes herself using dolomite, lime, sulphur dust, copper sulphate and seaweed meal. She adds more or less of each ingredient depending on what she observes the cattle are eating. “The motto is you are what you eat, but I want to know what I eat eats,” she says. “The cattle need to eat well to make it worth ingesting.” While the herd is still in its early days, Ellie sends about one or two animals to Radfords abattoir at Warragul each month, aged between two and three years of age. “I know when they’re ready based more on their look – they just look juicy, round and plump with a peachy bum,” Ellie says She adds that because they are grass-fed, not sent to a feed lot, the marbling, or fat content in the meat, is not high. “Marbling is also about breed traits, how much they’re fed, what they eat, how much exercise they get. “I’m not getting the same marbling as a feed lot but they still taste beautiful.” FROM PAGE 26 Simple food chain: Ellie tends to her herd, which are primarily fed on pastures of fescue and rye. 28 Farm THE WEEKLY TIMES
