Buying beef with a story

Wanting to “close the loop” between breeding cattle and consequently eating the beef they help produce is what drove Kenny’s Creek Angus stud to launch their own natural beef label. While the stud’s main focus was producing Angus bulls aimed at the commercial cattle producer, earlier this year, Kenny’s Creek started selling their own meat through the local Boorowa butcher shop. And although it is unusual for a stud to be marketing their own beef products, the feedback so far about the quality of the meat has spoken for itself. Sold mainly through Sam’s Paddock butchery, situated in the town’s main street - which is operated by Sam Burton Taylor, son of Kenny’s Creek principals, Nick and Julia Burton Taylor – it is also sold into metropolitan areas, closing the supply chain.

“There is always a lot of talk about genetics and the quality of eat, but there is a big disconnect in actually getting to eat the beef you produce,” Sam Burton Taylor said. Although Kenny’s Creek doesn’t produce a large amount of steers, as their focus is on bulls, to fulfill orders they have been getting back in touch with producers who use Kenny’s Creek genetics. Mr Burton Taylor said they then purchased Kenny’s Creek progeny directly from the producers to use through the butchery. The steers used were all grass-fed, hormone free and produced in the most natural and sustainable way possible. “There is a definite demand from consumers for grass-fed beef that can be traced from paddock to plate,” he said. “We are giving customers an assurance that they are buying totally natural beef with one genetic story.”

Mr Burton Taylor said with the rise of cooking as a national past-time, there had also been an increase in the consciousness of customers, which was evident from the live export debacle. “Customers want to know where the product is coming from, how it was raised, processed and delivered to them.” After only marketing the meat for the past two months, it was already popular within the local area, and group deliveries were regularly conducted to Sydney. Currently, there are plans to expand the brand into Sydney and Canberra through a retail and online presence. “There is also the expectation we want to stop traffic, as we have 14,000 cars driving past our front door each week, as Boorowa is a connection from north to south,” he said. With tenderness and flavour the most important factors when eating a piece of beef, an observation that had been made so far was that grass-fed beef had a much “better” taste than the grain-fed beef most consumers were used to eating. “Luckily, we have come off the back of a very good season so it has given us the ability to focus on grass-feeding.” And with Angus known for their high marbling traits, the beef was coming in at between a three and five marble score. Another plus for the butcher shop was that it was “low kilometre beef”, meaning it didn’t take as many resources to be delivered, and was attractive to local consumers as they could see where it was produced. The cattle used for the branded beef were finished at the Burton Taylor’s property, Breakfast Creek Station, situated between Boorowa and Cowra, then slaughtered at the Cowra abattoirs, and the carcase was then aged in the butchery coolroom. “From paddock to butcher shop the meat is only doing 110km.” As well as prime cuts of meat, the beef was also made into sausages and mince. A chef was also working alongside the team of butchers in the Boorowa store to ensure they were doing everything they could in the final stage of the process to enhance the positive eating experience. With the Kenny’s Creek stud run under strict commercial conditions, the main focus points for the cattle they produced were high female fertility, good carcase attributes and early growth-rates. Manager of the stud, Adam Withers, said the vertical integration of the seed stock producer and the meat supplier was a positive step forward. “So far we have received very positive feedback about the quality of the meat.” Mr Withers said it also helped publicise what they were aiming to produce with the stud bulls.

By NICOLA BELL