Georgina Baker
It’s hard to have a conversation about the future of farming without quickly realising that diversification and value adding are strong contenders for how we make our operations sustainable as modern day producers. It’s also the conclusion Georgina Baker and her husband Sam came to and after leaving her life in Brisbane behind, Georgina is showing the rest of us what that sustainable future could look like for us all. After some time transitioning Sam’s family farm into a fully regenerative grazing operation near Moonie, the Baker family now call an old dairy, turned organic beef production farm near Bellingen home. Georgina shares with us some of her insights about transitioning to regenerative farming practices and what it’s taken to build a mindset focused on the power of having multiple farm based enterprises.
WORDS : Alice Armitage IMAGES : Chaseley Barber
How does a city girl from Brisbane find themselves living on a farm in Moonie?
I grew up in Brisbane and I met my husband Sam on the Gold Coast. He was running a marathon and I was selling t-shirts. We started dating and it just happened to be a very wet year that year so Sam had lots of time to be in Brisbane. He was living on his family property near Moonie, four hours west of Brisbane and it didn’t take long for me to follow him back there. Not long after we met we went travelling together and then found ourselves out at the farm when we returned. I found myself a part-time job and settled into life at Moonie pretty quickly. That’s how I was transplanted into the country! I did everything I could to get involved in the business of running the farm as quickly as I could, I just wanted to be a part of it all, of Sam’s life. Sam was a third generation farmer and it was and still is such a big part of who he is and I was just trying to keep my new veggie patch alive! Not long after we made the move Sam’s dad passed away and we were really thrown in the deep end.
What was the farming operation like out there?
It was a conventional grain cropping and beef production property. Across the 6000 acres a portion was continuously grazed for cattle and the rest of the farm was used to grow winter crops. Mainly wheat, barley and some chickpeas. Even though Sam was raised on the farm, for both of us our education really started when we lost Sam’s dad. We quickly had to figure out how to keep the wheels turning. I’d started taking over some of the books and it was through that process that I realised I didn’t really have any financial literacy, especially in agriculture and we both wanted to get educated. So that’s what we did, we both really started to learn as much as we could about farming.
How did the transition into regenerative farming start to come about?
Since taking over the farm Sam had started to really explore the soil health of the farm and I was looking at the finances. We both started to think that it just wasn’t a sustainable way of operating. The inputs versus outputs just weren’t adding up to something that was sustainable long term. At the same time we’d had our first baby, Adeline, and she had terrible eczema that we just couldn’t get on top of. She wasn’t growing out if it was like everyone told us she would and the practitioners we were seeing for treatment were asking me what chemicals my daughter was being exposed to and I honestly didn’t know. Like a lot of cropping farms, we’d have crop dusters flying over the house and you could only guess what chemicals your family was being exposed to. It felt like there was just a moment where all of these things collided and it became obvious that we needed to make some changes. It led us to expose ourselves more to the concept of regenerative agriculture and that shifted us. Sam did some trial paddocks, he thought the whole thing was a bit of hog wash, and that’s certainly how the rest of the community perceived regenerative agriculture at the time. So we just split up one paddock and gave it a go. Those initial results were just nuts and we yielded twice as much feed as the year before just from that one little test patch.
So Sam just decided to have a go and it’s all snowballed from there?
He started to play with the concepts of rotational grazing, soil health and diversification of pasture species. By this stage we had three kids, we’d leased some of our cropping country to a neighbour and wanted to see if we could sustain our family on the livestock element of the farming operation. We got to the end of that three year test period and it was really working for us. We decided it was time to look at purchasing another farm, a smaller farm in a different climate. We happened to be driving through Bellingen and found an old dairy farm on 500 acres that had been on the market for a while. The previous owner was already a year into his organic conversion which was incredibly appealing. We put in an offer and moved down here to Bellingen at the beginning of 2019. The plan was for us to put a manager on at Moonie while we improved this place before heading back but we fell in love with the area and it seems we’re quite settled here now.
I know the first objection you’ll get from most farmers is that it’s all well and good to move to a regenerative farming practice but that most can’t afford to wait out the initial transition period. How did you manage the transition from traditional cropping to regenerative grazing at Moonie and then the transition to an organic operation here in Bellingen?
Yes I certainly hear that a lot. We started small, only investing in what improvements we could afford at the time. We focused on growing grass, we got lucky with trading cattle too, prices were good for a few years. But I believe it’s a bit of a paradigm, if you want to do it, you’ll find a way. While you initially might lower your outputs when you transition to regenerative practices, you also dramatically reduce your expenditure and it’s often not too difficult to end up with a better gross margin. There is certainly a transition period but at the same time you need to understand the mechanics of regen farming and know what nature can provide for us if we’re really giving it the very best chance.
Could you tell me a little more about the actual mechanics of what transitioning this farm at Bellingen looked like for you guys in the early days? What did production look like when you first turned up and what does it look like now?
The farmer we took over from thought he had about 80 dairy cows, when we put them through the yards there were more like 170! It was hard to know what production potential the farm had with no grazing records available. As with any dairy farm, a couple of the paddocks here were really poor and overgrazed. Sam built a lot of infrastructure, mainly fences and watering points so we could move cattle and rest paddocks. We started capturing data on how much grass we were growing and how many kg beef we were producing. Then we got some soil testing done and did a bulk application of compost, lime and gypsum - depending on what each paddock was needing. It’s a slow burn especially if you’re accustomed to being able to apply a synthetic fertiliser or chemical spray and to see the impact of that in a day or two. It takes a year to notice where you ran out of chook poo in one of the paddocks because it’s bright green on one side and not on the other. The dairy cows went and now we run beef cattle here as the core of our farming operation.
You’ve now sold the farm at Moonie?
We sold the farm in Moonie earlier this year. We’re really proud of being able to create a beautiful, fruitful and sustainable regenerative grazing operation there but it was time for us to move on. It had been our intention that we would sell up here once we had improved the place and to move back to Moonie but over time it became quite clear that we were building a new kind of legacy for our family. All of a sudden our lifestyle had also altered for the better here as well and we wanted to hold onto that. When I first moved to be with Sam in Moonie I never thought we’d be able to take our kids to nippers on the weekend.
How did Bello Beef come to be?
A year into us being here we did a home kill. Just one of the beasts we’d raised and I asked our neighbours if anyone would be interested in some organic, grass fed beef and that’s how it all began. I started doing these nose to tail boxes and I’d started making my own sausages, they were a bit of a hit! The sausages became part of our home kill roster, we started making some different flavours and those two things have become the backbone of Bello Beef, grass-fed beef brand we grow here in Bellingen.
Could you tell me a little more about your process of working with Farmers2Founders?
It all kicked off when my sister in law sent me a link to apply for one of their programs. I was really starting to get going with the sausages, which was quickly becoming our real point of difference for the Bello Beef brand. I applied for the Farmers2Founders Ideas program, which is their agrifood & agtech business pre-accelerator program. I did that three month course during covid and at the end of that, we received a $3,000 grant which made such a huge difference. The grant allowed us to buy our first cool room and that really started to expand our capacity and our output. I also learnt about true customer discovery for the first time, I went into the program with great certainty around who my customer was, which was a busy mum. I personally buy organic because I’m concerned about conventional food processing but after diving deep into the process of that initial program with Farmers2Founders I learnt a lot more about who was most interested in our product. Instead of busy mums, we turned our focus to the health conscious consumer, that is seeking out clean food and wanting to know where their food comes from.
After the success of that initial program with Farmers2Founders, what was the next step for you?
I then worked with Farmers2Founders through the value+d red meat program which is specifically for red meat producers (beef, lamb and goat) who are looking for support to explore, validate and launch a value-added red meat business. Through that program we really dove deep on the number and got into the nitty gritty of what it really means for us to turn Bello Beef into a long lasting business that forms part of our overall farming operation. I worked with chefs on recipe development, I spoke to so many people across all aspects of the supply chain and learnt so much that enabled me to expand the business. We now have four strong distribution channels for our products, we’ve outsourced the manufacturing of some products as well as now working with a number of distributors that are getting our products further afield. We’ve come a long way from that first beast we shared with our neighbours and Farmers2Founders really nurtured me through those phases of growth.
What is your relationship like with the Farmers2Founders team now that the programs you’ve been through have wrapped up?
Well I spoke to Skye, one of the co-founders, yesterday. Farmers2Founders creates such a nurturing environment and they really want you to succeed so I feel very comfortable going to the team with any questions or challenges I’m facing and asking for their support. What I learnt through those two programs, I carry with me everyday. There is so much packed into that short period of time and it’s so intensely informative. Every week we were attending a masterclass delivered by someone who was incredibly knowledgeable and at the time they might not have always seemed totally relevant but as you go on you face a challenge or recall something someone said and you have the opportunity to put those learnings into practice. We learnt from lawyers about contract manufacturing agreements for example, and at the time I didn’t think it would be something I’d ever need to know about but as we’ve grown I’ve needed to lean on that knowledge and the things I’ve learnt through Farmers2Founders has continued to inform my perception of what it means to build a long-lasting resilient businesses.
You seem to have now also integrated some other businesses into the overall farming operation as well as Bello Beef ?
Yes, I have learnt that part of the concept of building resilient farming operations is enterprise stacking. You need to stack enterprises to create resilience. So when you go into a drought, you can offset that by the guests that keep checking into your on-farm accommodation. Or if you’ve got a cattle disease outbreak you’ve still got chickens. Whatever it is, and working with Farmers2Founders has definitely informed that way of thinking. There is only so much Sam & I can do ourselves so we do what we can to collaborate with others on alternative enterprises for the farm. Part of what I see my role being here on the farm is to come up with ideas for growth opportunities. I started to envisage lots of different operations that could function here on the farm alongside our beef product and we’re slowly doing what we can to bring them to life. Now we offer event spaces and have a growing agritourism operation with three cabins and multiple campsites across the farm. We have a thriving vegetable patch and chickens raised on our pastures.
How have you actually made these things happen?
Once we decided this was the approach we wanted to take, all of these opportunities seem to have happened quite naturally. I’d been thinking about the vegetables for a while and by happenstance two friends came to visit from Brisbane one weekend. Luigi is Italian and had a tiling business and Nidya is Peruvian and was working in marketing. I mentioned to them that I was going to look for someone to come down and build a veggie patch. They rang us six weeks later and asked if they could do it. They packed up their lives and moved down here to Bellingen - it turns out they were permaculture fanatics, studying it for years. In their backyard in Brisbane they had a full permaculture set up so really we just gave them the space to expand what they were already doing. They now operate from a converted section of the old dairy and grow veggies here for a living. It’s just an example of how these collaborative enterprises have come together for us. It’s a fantastic way to diversify the economics of the farm and it’s also great that we get a fresh box of veggies delivered to the backdoor every week.
What advice would you give to someone who is starting to think about taking a leap into an alternative way of approaching their farm management?
Regenerative agriculture has allowed us huge positive change; for our family, our business and the opportunities we have for the future. Education is the key to growth, and every farmer should give themselves the opportunity to learn. Whether or not it’s regenerative agriculture or building a brand for a value add product, we all need to keep learning. My belief is that farmers are a curious and clever bunch, and are easily intrigued. It’s taking the first step that’s the tricky part. There are some very successful regenerative farming stories out there for inspiration. We are a small fish, feeling our way through, but we have no regrets and can see clearly that farming this way has enabled us to get to where we are. We are excited to keep travelling down this path, always learning and sharing and hopefully inspiring.
This piece was created in collaboration with the team at Farmers2Founders. The Ideas Program and value+d Red Meat Program mentioned in this interview have been supported by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA). (at)farmers2founders www.farmers2founders.com
You can find Georgina and her work here:
(at)bellingenbeef wwww.levenvalefarm.com.au