Prime consistency at Cootamundra

Having supplied the same butchery in Canberra suburb Griffith for more than two decades, consistency has been his focus.

Running 150 head of cattle, 1500 crossbred ewes and 960 lambs across 425 hectares at “Bellevue”, Mr Ward supplies the butchery with lamb and beef which, until recently, were certified biodynamic.

The persistent dry weather forced Mr Ward to re-evaluate his production methods in order to maintain the consistency in his product which the butchery and its customers demanded.

“I was a certified biodynamic farmer for 15 years, but it became too hard in the drought conditions,” Mr Ward said.

Mr Ward gave up his certification due to ongoing costs.

“It was expensive to buy (certified biodynamic) grain at $600 a tonne compared to conventional wheat at $300/t,” he said.

“It was hard to turn an expensive input into cheap food.

“Now I sell under my own brand.

“It’s a simpler system – priorities change and rules and regulations become too difficult to deal with.”

“Bellevue” has been free of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides since 1988 and beef and lamb from “Bellevue” is still free range, grass-fed, a selling point for the butchery.

“After 15 years it was hard to leave the innovative and smart people in biodynamic farming but we just couldn’t borrow any more money to pay for expensive grain; we had to put a new strategy into play.

“It’s a business advantage – you meet the challenge of the season to keep producing the same supply.”

“Bellevue” has been in Mr Ward’s family since the early 1900s and Mr Ward said eventually his son Harry would take over.

“My grandfather started here and my son will take over from me – he’s extremely keen to take on the farm,” he said.

The farm’s biodynamic focus came from a preference of controlling weeds without using chemicals.

“You can control weeds by other means, like rotating pastures,” Mr Ward said.

“You can clean them up with other grasses and legumes or you can use strategic cropping and hand hoeing.”

That chemical-free focus has trickled down to stock on “Bellevue”.

Mr Ward produces his own feed which also means he knows how much feed he has when times get tough.

He feeds stock grain and silage in the warmer months and gives them dry feed in the wetter months.

He said the silage forced them to eat through the bale to grow quicker.

“By feeding silage in the summer to the cattle and dry feed when it’s wet, I can watch how their manure is being formed,” he said.

“I know the animal is functioning and getting the correct nutrients so I know I am producing healthy animals.”

Mr Ward rotated the pastures he grew between a couple of types of lucerne, chickpeas, and legumes.

“The pastures allow me to control the animals by diversifying pasture mixes,” he said.

“Animal health is controlled by diversity in different crops, like perennial crops, lucerne, sub-clovers and ryegrass which span different seasons.”

Mr Ward said he had been lucky in the dry period as he’d received 75 millimetres of rain in the past three weeks.

“I’ve sown early oats, the lucerne is growing and it’s more than three inches high already.

“The countryside looks beautiful, all green.”