Ethically producing your food & fibre.

Subscriber First Name, welcome to our farm.

It’s been an interesting few months on our property, with lambing & kidding only just winding up a few weeks ago. Our first serious season saw a few challenges, ones that I think we rose to & addressed appropriately. Unexpectedly having to cull a ewe & bottle rear her lambs was really testing. How much do we want to be farmers? Really getting to know the breeds we’d chosen to farm; that’s been eye opening & very rewarding. The loss of a couple of lambs & a kid was a real shame. We learnt so much & we also learnt that sometimes there’s nothing more to be done.

One of the last big jobs of the year in shearing the girls before the silly season truly kicks in. Only a couple of weeks to go & Alex will be in full skirting mode. The boys shearing went beautifully with the fellas enjoying fresh buzzes ready for the warmer weather. The alpacas equally enjoyed fresh looks for the remainder of spring. Everyone donating his or her fleece to the various uses we have in mind.

Starting to milk the sheep & goats has been the best thing about 2025. Really knuckling down through those tough dry seasons of the past two years & persevering with the plan. Buying sheep during a drought might not have been the smartest idea I’ve ever had. It’s certainly had it’s pros & cons but really it’s put us ahead of where we thought we’d be.

Having to feed out so much during the dry times has accelerated the regeneration of many paddocks. Specific areas of poor pasture, degraded soil & low fertility are now thriving because of the way we grazed & fed throughout the past 18 months. With every rain event, Mother Nature is building a quiet confidence in me. We can handle things now, we’ve gotten through some tough seasons with the “flerd” & they are thriving.

This brings us to the very last job of the year, which is sending lambs to the abattoir for slaughter. This is a very serious task, one we will do with great care & a deep sense of responsibility. Tomorrow I will go to the abattoir & finalise everything for the first kill. We are now proud members & shareholders of the Murray Plains meat cooperative. At last look there were about 55 members & I’m sure it’s increased since then.

Established in 2019 by a group of farmers in the Barham region, to address the lack of livestock processing options in the Central Murray district. First built to process poultry & upgraded in 2023 to process multi-species. It’s only since February this year that the micro abattoir was granted a red meat license. The cooperative is the result of hours upon hours of hard work by a very dedicated group of people. We are grateful benificeries & hope to contribute our part in the future.

I will attend the AGM on Tuesday night, hoping to listen, observe & learn more about what it takes to run the abattoir. No canvasing votes for the board of directors just yet, but an opportunity to be actively informed about the goings on of this important facility. We will heavily rely on the abattoir for our livelihood & it will allow us to fulfil our goals as farmers. This is the only option we have to process our animals, it’s an integral part of the puzzle that is Addington Downs. I look forward to reporting back to you all.

I hope to have our online shop ready very soon. There are a few more jobs to tick off the list. It’s as daunting as it is exciting & I’m sure you can understand I want things to be just so. I will send out the next newsletter before the end of the month. It will launch the opening of the online shop & you will be able to order lamb boxes ready for delivery in late December. You’ll be given a password to the shop & have access before everyone else. This might sound exclusive or even a bit wanky but the reality is we are an exreamly small farm & the offering is very limited.

Many of you have followed our journey for a long time now & I would hate for any of you to miss out. It’s our way of looking after our supporters. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement & curiosity in what we’re trying to achieve here. Everyone will be enjoying some delicious lamb soon enough!

Warmest,

Jenna

If you’ve gotten this far & you like what you’ve read then why not share us with someone you know? Forward this email to a like minded friend who might be interested.

There’s still a place for good old fashioned word of mouth…