Take a gander at this Guyra farmers' goose gamble

Thinking “outside the square”, the fourth-generation cattle and sheep graziers started growing geese alongside their Seaforth Angus stud at Llangothlin, on the outskirts of Guyra.

The gamble paid off.

The Mackenzies are now the only completely integrated goose meat producers in Australia where every product is processed, made, cooked, packaged, and dispatched all from the farm, under their U Goose brand.

“The 2014 drought nearly brought us to our knees and even though it was one of the hardest times in our young professional lives, looking back, it was a good thing,” Mr Mackenzie said.

“It forced us to look harder at our business, our business model, how we were doing things and why we were running the enterprises we were.”

When the Mackenzies were brainstorming ideas, they wanted an enterprise that would complement their Angus stud, the soil, land and the cold New England climate.

It was then when the goose idea was born.

“Everyone officially thought Herb and I had lost the plot,” Mrs Mackenzie said.

“But this only made Herb and I more determined to try and succeed.

“I suppose this is another area where we are both so well suited and such a great team.

“We wanted something different from anyone else that we had complete control of from basically conception to the customer and to the plate.”

First they established a unique goose incubation facility on site.

Then in 2015, in an Australian first, they erected their own goose processing facility on farm to allow them to process when they wanted to and when the animals were ready.

They also built a commercial kitchen in the facility where every part of the goose is value added.

“Nothing is wasted…we truly love our goose,” Mrs Mackenzie said.

“No one else in Australia does what we do, on the scale we do it and has the products we have.”

But it has not been an easy road.

“If we knew what we know now about how tough the goose game is and how much it costs on a commercial scale – we are not so sure we would have gone into it,” Mrs Mackenzie said.

“Don’t get us wrong we love it more than anything – and the geese, all of them are truly part of our family – but many people say breeding geese is easy.

“Commercially breeding geese is a completely different ball game and it is a hard gig.”

They had to become the “test guinea pigs” for the entire industry as there was no commercial knowledge or support in Australia.

“For the past four to five years we’ve had to do all of the trials, research, and copped all of the failures, financial burdens, all off our own bat,” Mr Mackenzie said.

“We feel as though we are very close to the secret recipe and we are so, so very exited of what the next five years is going to bring to our gaggle of geese here and the future employment opportunities this will then bring to locals.”

Currently they have around 2500 breeding geese and they run their geese just like their cattle and sheep operations.

They are all free range, with each gaggle having large irrigation dams to swim and play in daily.

“We allow each goose to be able to be a goose as nature intended – they are grazing animals and are at their best when they are able to do this,” Mrs Mackenzie said.

With greater demand for paddock to plate goods, they have gained notoriety for their premium quality produce, which is being used used in the restaurants of well-known chefs Matt Moran, Shannon Bennett and Donna Chang.

They currently have 96 different products, including free range goose, free range mammoth muscovy duck and a goose charcuterie range, as well as award-winning rillettes and pate, or U Goose rendered fat for roasted potatoes.

They have also just started to sell some red meat – so people who are placing their poultry order can now grab their steak, rissoles, lamb backstraps and heaps of other red meat goodies too.

With much of the state still in drought, Mr Mackenzie urges others to “think outside the box”.

“These are such exiting times in the food industry and people are caring more about food culture and how and where their food comes from. It is not only in the cities, it is here in regional towns too – get on the wagon – it is a great ride,” he said.