26 Farm T H E w E E k l y T i m E s

N OT TOO many caTTle farmers are reformed vegetarians.

But ellie mitterer – who farms a herd of 70 Wagyu-angus cattle

on a 40-hectare farm at nar nar Goon east of melbourne – says she wasn’t against the concept of eating meat when she chose to be a vegetarian.

“I stopped eating meat for years because I didn’t like the food production system, and the product from the supermarket had no flavour,” says the 35-year-old.

“So I saw no point in eating something that didn’t taste good and no point in eating something that wasn’t healthy.”

Therefore it makes perfect sense that when she bought the 40 hectares in 2011 and decided to raise cattle, under her melbourne natural Grass Fed Beef brand, she chose the breed based on taste.

“I went to the butcher and ordered various eye fillets from angus and other breeds. The frying pan decided for me – I wanted a Wagyu-angus cross,” she says.

“now I enjoy a couple of steaks and burgers.

I know what my cattle have eaten, how they have lived and I know what I’ve consumed hasn’t been mistreated.”

ellie says, despite growing up on the outskirts of melbourne, she had an early fascination with farm animals.

“my parents say even when I was little I’d prattle on about horses and cows. you know how you’re sometimes drawn to something for no apparent reason, well I’m drawn to cows, even though I knew nothing about them,” she says.

ellie left school and worked in a variety of jobs, from night clubs to stables, but it was when she completed a diploma of horticulture in her late 20s that “the penny dropped”.

“This is where nutrition comes from, how minerals bind in the soil,” ellie says. “The picture was pieced together in my mind.”

So in 2011, bored with the suburban grind, she bought the nar nar Goon property, opting for the area because it was commutable to the city, fairly flat, fertile and ideal for cattle.

She admits her knowledge on cattle farming was “zero” but has since asked lots of “stupid

questions” and relied on intuition and commonsense to establish the property.

“Because it’s my own money, I couldn’t afford to make heaps of mistakes,” ellie says.

ellie opted for Wagyu because, aside from the good taste, they have low birth weight, easy birthing, and are a relatively quiet breed.

In 2012 she bought a full-blood Wagyu bull – registered as Honourable Warrior, but who ellie has dubbed mickey – from western Victoria, as part of a package that included 20 angus cows.

Since then she has bought and sold cows and calves to selectively breed, aiming to improve genetics by breeding with mainly angus, but the occasional Black Baldy, to the point she now has 34 breeders and a total herd of about 70.

The herd is grass-fed on pastures of fescue and rye, with only the occasional supplementary feed of hay.

Continued page 28

Greener pastures

Ellie Mitterer has completely transformed her life from city girl to country devotee, vegetarian to

cattle farmer. Sarah Hudson reports