Mitchell Grass Meats

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