Bringing the Pilbara to your plate
Host: Yarrie Station
Written by Annabelle Coppin, Owner.
‘Town life’ was kept busy with the launch of our branded beef product into the Pilbara! A little step into the big dream. Jude Taylor a family friend and talented artist painted our new Outback Beef Logo, which is now labelled on all our beef. Yarrie cattle are sent to our farm, here they are selected and put into the special “Outback Beef mob”. They are then sent to abattoirs south of the farm and into a boning room in Bunbury where they are packed into a unique ‘beef packs’ to be sent north again into Port Hedland. It’s a huge circle, with a huge freight bill attached, but the only option with no local abattoirs in the Pilbara; a big reason why people in the Pilbara haven’t been able to access local beef. It has been a lifetime dream to get quality, natural, unique Pilbara beef back into this region, we have made the move to strike this into life.
The huge challenge with paddock to plate is to sell the whole carcass, you can sell a scotch fillet and t-bone all day long, there is only a small percentage of these ‘luxury’ cuts on each beast. The rest of the so called ‘secondary’ cuts also need to be utilised to make it all viable. Tim, who’s blog you have already read, is also a butcher and apart from caretaking, checking mills and everything else has been a great help to work out how to get a whole carcass into different beef packs. There have been many hours juggling ideas and cuts into boxes, then importantly into a spreadsheet to try and make it viable. It certainly brings home why beef is the price it is by the time it goes through the whole supply chain.
That’s our challenge, bringing to life all the other exciting cuts of a beast, that if prepared correctly are an excellent eating experience, you just need to think out of the square. Having grown up butchering our own beef this culture is naturally built into our cooking and eating style. It is something that many Australians have lost in our generation. I’m hoping with a new twist, we can be a small part of the influence to help people get excited about all the other beef cuts we can prepare and put on our dinner plates. I particularly had great fun coming up with the different cut names, like ‘red dirt rump’, ‘real stockcamp ribs’, ‘Mulla Mulla Mince’, ‘Yarrie Y-bone’, and possibly my favourite ‘Para-diced beef’!
The aim is to give us more flexibility where we can sell our cattle with another steady and consistent marketing avenue. Another is to tell our story with through our beef product, it can be a powerful way of building our social licence with the rest of our Australians who have not had the opportunity to touch, see and understand our business of raising cattle, producing food, building careers and importantly improving the country we care for. We were aware this paddock to plate road isn’t simple, however we are confident it can still work if we stick to our vision and not try and grow too quickly.
Despite the rain, a wedding, new yards, environmental planning, another great cropping year at the farm and the launch of Outback Beef, there is no doubt that our greatest achievement yet for both Thomas and I (and the rest of the Yarrie family) has been the arrival of our daughter Tanami Ann. Born August 31st in Port Hedland. If I was a cow we would be both dead in the paddock, it was a hard birth, I quickly found a great respect and admiration for the medical professionals and all they did for us! I can’t help to think the pain and suffering that so many of our ancestors went through in our region when this help simply didn’t exist, worst still for all the women in the world now that still can’t access it!
Mustering finished just in time as squeezing through the rails was no longer an option.
Tanami bellows like cutest baby brahman calf and smiles like a champion, a delight, and like they all say it will be the best but the hardest thing you will ever do, it has only just begun but I can appreciate that advice! She will definitely be a village child; we appreciate the help that Thomas and I are getting from our special family and friends in this new era of our lives.
I look forward to bringing you more adventures from now a mother’s perspective. I will have far more adventures to add to station life and living now.
Tanami Ann born August 31.
Flying with my ‘’bump’’, and local Pilot from Pilbara Rotor Muster, Niffy and her dog Famous.
Our family.