Passion driving Crawney couple to sell direct from 'hills to grills'

The couple run about 85 Angus cows and 160 Merino ewes on their 174-hectare property at Crawney, near Nundle, and started selling meat direct to customers through their butchery, Crawney's Hills to Grills, about 12 months ago.

Mr Douglas grew up on the family Poll Dorset stud at Woolomin and after working at various properties an opportunity arose for the couple to buy the Crawney property, Brooklyn, in 2015.

Having sourced Poll Dorset rams from the family stud, they put them over Merino ewes to produce first-cross lamb, while Angus bulls are sourced from Ben Crowe at Glenfaba Angus, Timor.

Mr Douglas said they were focused on building their genetics and selecting different traits to compare the end result.

"Usually as a farmer you buy the best bulls and put them with your cows and sell them off - you don't get that feedback," he said.

Mr Douglas said they were focused on marbling, as well as yield and carcase shape.

The couple originally sold sold animals through the yards while working off-farm jobs. Buying more property was unfeasible due to the high prices, and Mr Douglas said marketing their own meat was a way to expand their farm business and value add.

"We were at a bit of a junction with us as to what we were going to do next," he said.

Mrs Douglas said they always liked their product and had supplied lamb to a Tamworth butcher for about 12 months.

"It was good but it was hard because we didn't have control, couldn't market it the way we wanted, couldn't say how many lambs we wanted to send," she said.

"We were very limited and it was a bit harder for the butcher himself."

Mr Douglas said one of the most important things came back to the benefits for the local community.

"I think there's a bit more demand especially these days of knowing where the meat is coming from and who it's supporting," he said.

"Somebody can buy our meat and they're supporting us - if we're doing well then I'm going to do extensions on the house and support a local builder around and it all stays here."

Mrs Douglas said they also tried to support local businesses.

"On our own nobody can succeed - it's got to be a a real community effort with everything," she said.

"It's also the long term for our kids - otherwise our kids won't be able to have farm if it's not sustainable."

The animals are grass fed and then finished on grain for about 60 days, with the aim of producing cattle to come back with a carcase weight of about 260 kilograms.

"When we first started we had them come back at about 300kg but that was to big to handle so we had to bring it back," Mr Douglas said.

He said lambs average about 25kg carcase weight.

"It is very tricky with the lamb," he said.

"When we used to send them to the yards you need them big and fat and present well as a big fat finished lamb but we find that the fatter they are it's more work for us.

"Once you get over that 30kg carcase weight you end up having to trim fat to get a presentable product.

"It's been a tricky one there to get the lambs to grow before you fatten them so you've got that eye muscle there - enough eye muscle there with enough fat coverage."

They currently send two heifers and about 10 lambs a fortnight to the abattoir at Coonabarabran before the bodies are broken down in a mobile trailer on their property which acts as the boning room.

Mr Douglas said a mobile butcher breaks down the beasts, while they cut up the lambs themselves, as well as making their own sausages.

The meat is boxed and sold by weight to customers for delivery, as well as some stockists in the local area.

"The customer only pays for the kilos they get," he said.

"We sat down and worked out our costs and we said okay we just want a mediocre price for our product where we think it's sustainable where we can run the farm."

They also aimed to limit chemical use, such as only drenching when absolutely necessary, and buying grain that was GMO free.

Mrs Douglas said they had their core values but did not want to be forced into a box or label with their practices.

"It's very important for us to have a wide view. Seasons change, the grass changes, the animals change, we have to stay flexible," she said.

"If you've got your core values you can move with that. That's what we want to achieve and we can be flexible in terms of management of animals around the farm."

Mrs Douglas said they were driven by passion.

"I want to do something I really truly love and Cameron really loves, rather than just focus on the end result."