CURRABUBULA whiteface producers Matthew and Debbie Kelley have taken the next step in promoting the Hereford breed, and it’s paying off.
The couple has spent the past year taking product beyond the farm gate, selling beef through their butcher shop at Quirindi.
Warragundi Beef Company is a vertically-integrated business which allows the Kelleys to have full control of their product.
The focus is on producing top quality beef, and at the same time, they’re making sure all customers know it’s from Hereford cattle.
Only Hereford beef is sold through the shop, with the Kelleys commercial cattle and bought-in cattle being finished at “Warragundi West”, Currabubula.
Mr Kelley said between 50 and 60 head were processed each month at the Wingham abattoir, where they’re MSA (Meat Standards Australia) graded.
The beef is sold in two brands – Warrangundi Reserve, a 100-day grain-fed product, and grass-fed brand Warragundi Platinum.
Steer and heifers go into the brands, killed at 12 to 15 months, and usually reaching between 200 kilograms and 220kg.
Anything that is too large will go to other markets, Mr Kelley said.
“Once you start getting up around 250kg you end up with scotch fillets and T-bones that are just too large, but the supermarket trade can take cattle that are a bit heavier, so if we have some that are 250kg to 280kg, they’ll go to Woolworths.
“Trading is a fundamental part of our business and we’re always buying in cattle because we’re selling to other markets.”
Mr Kelley said more than 700 cattle would be sold through the butchery each year, with grain-fed cattle finished in the on-farm feedlot.
“For the butchery we’ve got to guarantee a week-in, week-out, consistent supply and it’s difficult to keep those numbers on grass.
“We haven’t picked up that demand for grass-fed beef in as strong a manner as some of the affluent suburbs of Sydney, but we try to keep grass-fed beef in the shop to give the customer the option.”
Eating quality is a top priority
HEREFORD cattle have been bred by the Kelley family since 1992, with the breed’s docility and strong weight gain creating good quality, easy handling, profitable cattle.
The Kelleys run 500 breeders over 1600 hectares at “Brookside”, Walcha and “Warrangundi West”, Currabubula. Each drop’s top 100 heifers are retained in the herd and breeders are run in small mobs.
“We’ve got some very high performing sires and we’re going to following all that data through the abattoirs, and cull sires that aren’t performing so we’re constantly improving the genetics of the herd,” Matthew Kelley said.
Carcase and eating quality traits are a priority when selecting bulls. The Kelleys recently won a bronze medal in the Australian Food Awards with a striploin from a grass-fed yearling steer.
“We look for an eye-appealing sire with plenty of grunt and we like dark Hereford cattle,” Mr Kelley said.
“We need a good balance of figures, with good eating quality traits – positive fats, the biggest eye muscle area possible, and good intramuscular fat.
“The fat coverage gives meat its the taste and chefs like working with some fat coverage.”
