In weather that could only be described as tropical, around 30 people attended a very hot and humid Murray Plains Meat Co-Operative open day on Friday December 6.

After nine years of advocacy planning and cooperation with Murray River Council the micro abattoir has come to life.

“It’s fantastic to see what a local food community can do.” said Warwick Long, host of the ABC’s Victorian Country Hour, after streaming the show live on location.

“As I said at the start of the show today, “Abattoir Open Day”, you don’t hear those words, and it takes someone coming along and doing something differently for the rest of us to take notice of something great that’s happening in a community, but the fact that it’s happening in Barham is fantastic.

“I haven’t been here (Barham) for a little while, so it’s exciting to be here and see a vibrant community doing good things.

Warwick’s excitement was also shared by prospective members of the Co-Op who had come to check out the facility.

“I’ve always liked the concept of paddock to plate, but doing it ourselves, a) we don’t have the capacity, b) the regulation side of it and c) the freight and logistics to the consumer, has always been a consideration.” said Sandy Pollington from Nullawil. The Pollington’s run a mixed farming enterprise of cropping, sheep and Blonde d’Aquitaine cattle. Sandy said her family had been carting beasts to Swan Hill for slaughter with the carcass trucked back to a butcher in Wycheproof. Retirement of their butcher had meant their family was now relying on home kills, which excluded them from supplying consumers. A membership of the co-op could change that.

“Steve (MPC Co-op) was saying earlier that we can put our own logo on, and we can have it packed up however we want.

“I was also pretty excited at the prospect that we’re able to get the information on individual carcasses. There’s always room for improvement.

Finding places to have animals processed is becoming exceedingly difficult for producers. The recent announcement by the Victorian processor Hardwick’s that they will stop processing small consignments of animals from next year left not only farmers in the lurch, but also butchers.

Brad Zammit from Maldon Quality Butchers was one such butcher who is now considering his options, and MPM Co-op may be the answer.

“We’ve been biodynamic and buying off Steve and Matt Fitzpatrick for 10 years now, and we want to keep that going.

“It’s a niche market, and works really well. A lot of people want it. It’s chemical free farming.

“Hardwick’s gave us notice Thursday last week (28/11), and they gave us yeah till the 14th would be our last kill. It sort of squashes 10 years of work in a very short time.

“We wanted to keep that going, so we tried other places, no success.

“I had heard that my Uncle Val (Azzopardi) was working here, so we thought we’d come and have a look and see what it was about, because there’s a lot of farmers, a lot of butchers in the same area. We’ve been talking since last Thursday about do we try to get Inglewood up and going and sort of pitching ideas. Seeing this, that you can do it, it is possible, was great.”

Producer Steve Fitzpatrick said finding processing for their organic produce was critical.

“We’re in the same boat as Brad Done. We did the background work on trying to find out whether anyone can do it (process the animals) and of course, everyone’s full.

“We got our heads together with Brad, and we’ve sort of found it here, and hopefully this place can do well and keep us going.

Myall farmer and MPM Co-op board member Peter McDonald said he has already had contact from a butcher looking for a resupply of great tasting local lamb.

“We were supplying a butcher in Maryborough for a while. He’s got five butcher shops and was taking about 25 lambs a week. He was getting them killed at Swan Hill and Hardwick’s before that. They’ve made it almost impossible at Swan Hill. I talked to him this morning. Once we’re up and running, he’s really keen to talk to us and it may be a case of cattle and sheep taken on a weekly basis.”

While Peter is a more recent board member he said the work that everyone has put in has been tremendous.

“It’s amazing, the work, not just physically building the facility but the bookwork and a lot of stuff that has to be done. People would never understand what goes into the audits and stuff over the line.”

Poultry processing has commenced at the facility, and it is hoped that a successful NSW Government Biosecurity and Food Safety red meat processing audit will be obtained early in the new year.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 12 December 2024.
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