Mitchell Grass Meats

Protein droughts for grass fed animals

Anna and George Hetherington — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:25:02 +0000

A long time between posts, life is always busy on the farm! With home schooling, running our business, work on the farm, building projects, community commitments there is never a dull moment here.After all the wonderful rain earlier in the year, our country grew so much grass it was quite amazing. The Flinders grass (native) which normally grows about 30-40cm high grew up to 50-60cm this year - George & I had never seen it so strong and lush. The Mitchell grass (native) also responded to the moisture with incredibly thick growth. We could see we were going to have trouble at lambing time - with baby lambs being lost and unable to find their mothers due to the density of grass.We made the decision to offer some of our country for short term adjistment to some fellow producers (with chemical free practices) who had drought stricken cattle further west of here. Our country needed animals to use the abundance of grass and they needed grass urgently to keep their animals alive. It was a pitiful sight to see these poor weak animals arriving - some barely able to stand. We can only begin to imagine the heartbreak the owners have been going through - waiting for decent rain for several years. It was a pleasure to see their cattle looking remarkably more content after just a week of good food.Since then, our country has been without rain for about 6 months. Although there is still plenty of grass in our paddocks, it has dried off considerably and the ratio of green grass (high in protein) to dried grass (hay) is diminishing. With that situation, we can end up with plenty of food for the animals, but a protein drought, due to less green grass in amongst the dried grass. We started praying for 24mm or more of rain to green up the grass and fix the protein situation. Such are the challenges with 100% grass fed animals.And guess what…..in the past two days we have had about 32mm of gentle soaking rain! What an answer to prayer! Our country is bathed in sunshine today - perfect conditions to see that green grass peeking through.We have had a lot of enquiry from people in other areas of Qld and interstate who are wanting to purchase our 100% grass fed, chemical free meat. At this stage we are concentrating on S.E. Qld but don’t rule out expanding into other areas in the future. Anyone outside our normal delivery area is welcome to get in touch with us.We are lamb marking this week all the sheep with lambs are mustered in and drafted (sorted), the lambs are marked and then returned to their paddocks with their mothers. Every individual lamb has to be manually picked up (about 15kg) and marked. Mustering on a motorbike at dawn on these icy cold mornings is character building! Sometimes, it is so cold that we can barely make our mouths move to speak on the two-way radio. But we love it - sheep and cattle work can be a lot of fun.Don’t forget we are giving away a 20kg pack of our delicious 100% grass fed, chemical free lamb this month. Send in your thoughts about grass fed meat to be in the draw for this great prize. Thanks to those who have done so already - its great to see the ways that grass fed, chemical free meat is helping you and your families.

Mitchell Grass Meats Give Away

Anna and George Hetherington — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:53:32 +0000

Want to win $250 worth of delicious, healthy grass fed lamb from our farm in western Queensland? To enter, write in the comments below why you prefer 100% grass fed, chemical free meat. In the spirit of localism, this competition is open only to readers from Queensland and the Northern Rivers of NSW. So if you’re from there, go for it, tell us what you love (or would love if you could try it!) about meat from 100% grass fed, chemical free animals.

Shearing time

Anna and George Hetherington — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:21:04 +0000

Its shearing time at Muyong, the busiest time of the year for us all. Lots of early morning mustering, walking sheep down lanes to the shed, drafting and sorting through our of sheep. Then through the shed to be shorn and a long walk back to a fresh paddock. Apart from producing chemical free lamb and beef, we also grow beautiful merino wool. The mothers of our meat lambs are all full merino ewes producing lovely soft wool.

The hustle, bustle and rhythm of shearing is an exhausting but exhilarating time. We love being in the shearing shed with the noise of the sheep’s feet as they move in their pens, their baa-ing, the shearing motor, the sound of the shearer’s handpieces cutting the wool, music thumping, the wool press engine groaning as it presses the wool into packs. Then theres the smoko times when we all sit down for a cuppa and a yarn before everyone gets back to work. Our girls love playing in the wool bins, branding the wool bales, running up and down the ever increasing stack of wool bales. George & I loved that as kids too. Jumping into a bin piled high with fleeces is so much fun! Loading the truck with these big heavy (approx 200kg) bales is another huge job. The rolling, loading and stacking is quite an art. Rolling the bales is a bit of a workout - sweat pouring, working those muscles to get them rolling.

Finally, when its all over, the shearers have gone, the shearing shed is hosed out, pens have been raked, the wool truck has left for its long trip to Sydney, the sheep are safely back in their paddocks, and there is a peace. In twelve months time, it will be on again. This year it has been a challenge for the animals and ourselves, battling the very hot, muggy weather.

Working in 35 degree heat with high humidity is demanding. Thankfully, we eat good protein breakfasts (and other meals) which provides us with energy to push through the demanding physical conditions. Plenty of meat, fresh eggs and vegetables. There is no way we could work the way we do without such food.

We often have young seasonal workers to help in the busy times. It is hard to watch them try to work with a slice of toast and a strong coffee (or less!) for breakfast.. George & I believe its quite a serious issue that our young people have been taught such health destroying habits in their diets.

They have learnt to distrust good fats (saturated fat from chemical free grass fed meat, eggs, avocadoes, butter, coconut oil etc), good quality proteins, to skip breakfast and other meals, to load up on coffee & coca cola, to consume lots of pasta, bread, sweet foods. The list goes on. Its no wonder their bodies and minds can’t handle even gentle work. Of course, part of working with us, includes encouragement to embrace healthy food choices! The young lady (18) we have here at present reports that, after 2 weeks, she has more energy than she has felt in years. Yet she is eating a lot more each day. Her old diet was mainly coffee, sweet biscuits and the odd stir fry. Watching people such as her gain strength in their nutritional choices, enabling them to perform better mentally and physically is a great pleasure indeed.

Apologies for taking so long between posts - we have been a bit consumed by the work involved with shearing.

Kind regards

Anna & George

Rain! Rain! Rain!

Anna and George Hetherington — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:15:42 +0000

Well for some parts of Queensland the current rains are causing flooding, inconvenience and in some cases distress. Our hearts go out to those who are suffering hardship due to flooding.Here at our property in western Queensland though, the joy we have, from the bountiful falls of rain can not be described! Our country has needed a really good soaking and that’s what it got this past week. For 100% grass fed meat producers, the sight of our animals wading through a sea of fresh green grass with dams & waterholes full to the brim, is quite simply - a true blessing. Our cattle and sheep have so much choice they donâ€™t know what to eat first! The downside is that the ground is so wet, we can’t get out to muster or truck them to fill orders we have for our meat packs. Oh wellâ€¦such is life on the landâ€¦we go from one extreme to the other.To introduce ourselves - My husband and I, together with our daughters, aged 9 & 7 run this small part of Australia in western Qld where we produce wool, beef and lamb. We homeschool our girls, in between running the property, establising our little meat venture and trying to instill the value of traditional foods in our children.We have a large veggie garden, an orchard, chooks, our chemical free meat and several milking cows. It keeps us very busy!! Both our girls are learning about traditional foods and are a great help. Our youngest tells me that she plans to be them main milking person as soon as she is strong enough to work the lever on the headbale! She has been coming down to help me milk since she was about four and has suprisingly strong hands. Our eldest loves cooking and anything to do with animals. We are teaching her healthful recipes and encouraging her to develop her own.We are both from families who have run sheep and cattle properties for generations in this area. We often draw on the wisdom of those who have grazed this land before us. My beloved parents-in-law help us a lot with stock work too - which they love. Its often a real family affair, with three generations down in the yards, working together.One of the attractive features of country out here is the absence of spraying, croping, superphosphates etc. Our country is natural undulating mitchell grass downs country. It has never been cleared. The main native grasses are mitchell & flinders grasses and there is also some buffel grass. We have a diverse selction of wild herbages native to this area too. Our animals mostly drink artesian water which we pipe around to troughs throughout the property. They also drink from waterholes and dams when we have plenty of surface water.My health started to steadily go downhill a number of years ago and I was later diagnosed with mercury poisoning, chemical poisoning (from a mouth full of amalgams and chemical exposure from helping on the farm where I grew up - sheep dips etc) fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, haemochromotosis, candida, leaky gut etc etc.This prompted many years of looking, learning, researching which led us to where we are now. We discovered the Weston A Price Foundation and others, whose ideas and information we have adopted. We’re not perfect with it all yet, but we strive in that direction! As we studied, we realised that the meat we have produced for a long time is perfect for those of us who believe in grass fed, chemical free, traditional foods, no grain feeding, no trimming the fat, lots of bone broths, organ meats, slow baking etc etc.The idea of providing our meat directly to such people soon became a passion. Bulk meat packs soon emerged as the most ecomomical and environmentally responsible (only the meat ordered is processed - no wastage) way to do so. Our focus became clear - excellent quality meat direct the consumer at a mutually attractive price.So here we are, a year later, flooded bound with green grass, water, healthly animals in the paddocks, healthy children in the school room - with Dad as their teacher today while I write this. Our customers have been very gracious in their patience, while they wait for our country to dry out enough for us to deliver their meat packs. Meanwhile their lambs and cattle just get bigger!We look forward to being a part of the Nourished Magazine community, to pass on what we know and most importantly to learn from you all.Until next tim, God BlessAnna, George & Family