What’s the last thing you need when running an online enterprise – of the agricultural kind?
Bricks and mortar? Exactly.
So why is Wakool beef cattle producer Hayley Pattison sinking her hard-earned money into a butcher’s shop in downtown Deniliquin?
Because she became so good, so quickly, at online marketing, she also drummed up legions of locals who also wanted to be able to sample the same wares as those being served in cyberspace.
Whether the shop proves to be the solution, or simply the next step in a success story, remains to be seen – but the beef farmer (and mother of three) had to do something about her problem. Albeit a problem to which most farmers would happily awaken any day.
What Hayley is still finding hard to comprehend is how quickly her little plan to start a little trial with selling a little bit of branded product online has so very quickly got out of hand.
In less than a year, that little plan (and little dream) started morphing into a fully integrated beef business – the famous conception-to-consumption conundrum.
So Pattison Pastoral is now the proud owner of Bimbella Beef Butchery in Deniliquin, now run as Pattison Pastoral Butchery; and Hayley and her little team are now very busy making food about farming.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Hayley can often be seen with four-year-old daughter Zali on her hip, inspecting her herd of 280 cows and calves, mostly Angus, Herefords and Black Baldies (plus the 600 Merino ewes with their terminal sire for good crossbred lambs necessary in any good butcher’s shop) on the family property Minmi.
“Temperament is important when it comes to taste,” Hayley explains as the cattle stare back at mother and daughter.
A fourth-generation Poll Hereford stud farmer, Hayley is a long way from her home – and Standford Poll Herefords – near Bathurst.
And, as it turns out, her arrival in the Riverina might have been written in the stars after university brought her to Wagga, where she was studying agricultural science and where, in turn, she would meet Matt, her husband-to-be.
The pair shared a love of pig hunting and fishing, which brought them to Moulamein, where they both signed on to manage a nearby property.
After buying an 1800-acre ‘weekender’ and moving to Minmi at Wakool in 2011, the Pattisons, who have three children, went on to buy a further two adjacent farms, bringing their total acreage to 4200. Now they were ready for a new challenge – such as a little online trial.
“I decided to get a better understanding of where we were going by doing a business development course through Western Murray Land Improvement Group, and that played an integral role in bringing my idea for Pattison Pastoral boxed beef and lamb, to life,” Hayley says.
“It also helped me build a website so I was able to trial selling meat online – and we launched with just one product; which was a 20kg box of beef that could be yours for just $400; and it sold well,” she says.
Hayley might have been an old hand when it came to raising livestock; but she was relative newbie in the food game.
Which she proceeded to master very quickly – out of absolute necessity.
Hayley joined an enthusiastic band of other small operators with big plans as a supporter of the region’s first small processing facility – the Barham micro-abattoir (with its much-anticipated opening still pending some final approvals and staff recruitment) and in the meantime the cattle and lambs from Pattison Pastoral are racking up some frequent flyer miles getting around the countryside to plants such as Gathercoles (in Wangaratta) and Hardwicks (at Kyneton) before turning around and heading north to Deniliquin and the good old Pattison Pastoral Butchery, where the packaging, labelling and distribution sees the end product going through the shop itself or into vacuum packs consigned to refrigerated courier trucks and off to online customers across NSW and Victoria.
The vacuum seal and the rapid turnaround of the courier service means when your order lands at your front door, it is still good for 42 days on a fridge shelf.
Hayley has also been amazed at the impact of the pandemic on the online enterprise in general.
With people reluctant to get involved with supermarket crowds, and the rise and rise of click and collect (and download and click) she says it clearly got a lot of people thinking about what was being hidden in their fridges and freezers
“People really started to get into the story of their food, where did it come from, how was it grown, processed and prepared for consumption and that, for those of us in the production business, was a serious positive because we have a great story to tell,” Hayley explains.
She has also learnt you can’t do everything yourself – and get it right.
“The whole supply chain seems to love what we’re doing. The staff in our Deni store and our customers all seem truly invested in the success of Pattison Pastoral as an exciting new business,” Hayley adds.
“And while we have been doing virtually everything, now we have a shop, we have had to let go a little and put our faith in others to have the same passion for the end product,” she says.
“We just love it when people come in and see the meat on display and then they point and says things such as ‘is that Hayley’s meat?’
“We all get a real buzz out of that – every time.”
In the wider world of the consumer, Hayley reckons there is little doubt the drive towards sustainable eating is pivotal in the demand for the local butcher being elevated from snags, a few chops and a slice of steak to a retail point of preference for a genuine, high-quality culinary experience.
“Our customers increasingly want to know exactly what they are eating, such as what breed is the beef they buy, how did it get here, the whole back story,” Hayley says.
“Every day, they come in and so often the first thing out of their mouths after ‘hello’ is, ‘is that Hayley’s meat’ as they check out Gary’s own latest culinary creations.”
And while she is flat out fine tuning her digital platforms and shopfront, Hayley still has her finger on the pulse of the Pattison Pastoral progeny and has already started introducing Black Simmental genetics, seeking their hybrid vigour in the first crosses, but still keeping the black coat rated so highly right through the beef business.
“Farmers tend to see things differently. As the people who sell food you always see things differently, when we hand select which of our animals are ready for sale/processing, we might see them as livestock, but at the same time we value and respect each animal,” she says.
And she confirms it is content stock which become the best tasting meat and that’s why she is just as determined to keep finetuning her farm management decisions, because of the impact every one of them will have on the quality of her end-product.
“That covers everything from our pasture profile, using low stress stock handling and a cutting-edge nutrition management strategy – they all play a role on the farm, which means they all play a role in our online business and in our butcher’s shop,” Hayley adds.
“Our customers, and more consumers everywhere like to know that story; and I think they can taste the difference.”
If you really want to get an up close and personal, you won’t do better than to get in touch with Hayley Incorporated and organise a farm stay at Wakool on her farm Minmi.
Where you won’t just see meals on the hoof, you will get a real understanding of not just how your food is grown, but how things such as saltbush and lignum provide micronutrients for a well-balanced diet.
Experience sustainable farming in action, in harmony with a wild landscape full of birdlife, frogs and big skies. There’s not an aspect of the Pattison program that hasn’t got something to offer, by way of education, even entertainment, and that’s a pretty good way to run a pretty new business.
