Full Body - 250 kgs ($26/kg)
$6,500.00
ABOUT BOOMERANG PARK
A Family Farm in Grasmere Since 1929
Boomerang Park is a family-owned working farm located in Grasmere, South West Victoria, with a history that spans nearly a century.
On the 23rd day of September 1929, Daisy May McLeod, purchased the land that Boomerang Park continues to operate on today. Since then, the farm has been cared for by successive generations of the McLeod family.
In 1948, Jack & Dorothy McLeod moved in at the farm. The next generation followed in 1985, when Neil & Penny McLeod assumed responsibility for the property.
Since 2006, John & Bettina McLeod have owned Boomerang Park as a dairy farm with a small beef production and also breeding Fjord horses since 2016. John studied Agriculture at Glenormiston College and Bettina graduated from Dalum Agricultural College, specializing in Organic farming practices.
Land Care
We use biological farming methods that support soil health and thereby plant and animal health. Soil testing and plant tissue testing, twice a year, determines what minerals are needed to balance the soil, generally Lime, Dolomite or Gypsum. Marco and trace minerals are added to a blend of kelp or fish emulsion as a foliar spray. Composted manure is spread every autumn.
No soil test has ever come back perfect, as soil is changing all the time with impacts from rain and dry, harvest and grazing and previous applications, we can only try each year to get it as good as possible. We very much try to limit the use of anything artificial, by working with biology and getting everything in balance in a natural way.
Animal Husbandry
At Boomerang Park, the wellbeing of livestock is paramount, as a farmer you are only as happy as your least well animal.
The dairy cows are fed a mixture of pasture, silage, hay, straw and crushed grain, which includes the vitamins, minerals and amino acids they need and in winter also almond hulls for extra energy.
The beef cows with calves are predominantly pasture based with hay and silage fed through dry times and winter and also supplemented with about 2 -3 kg of grain per day to ensure enough energy for both cow and calf. This makes a nutritionally balanced diet that supports lactation and pregnancy, but also gives enough protein and energy, when pasture and hay alone can not sustain optimal health.
The beef steers destined for the freezer, stay with their dam on milk until about a year old, thereafter they are pasture raised and finished on land that has had no artificial fertilizers or chemicals for over 20 years.
Dairy calves are raised in age groups, there are no small huts or restrictive measures, they naturally live in a herd, so they can run and play and socialise with others in their group. They have ad lib milk, crushed grain and hay/silage.
We keep as many of the dairy bull calves as we can, they are raised alongside the heifer calves their first year, thereafter with the beef steers, to grow out and be available for the freezer. Their meat is generally a little leaner and the steaks not quite as big, but the flavour and eating quality is very good.
As for the age-old question of taking dairy calves away from their mothers, that is not how we do it. A cow will naturally leave her calf to go and feed herself, this is demonstrated daily in the beef herd, so to mimic that, you must allow the cow to settle with her calf, where the calf will live after she goes to get milked.
Calves are generally very adaptive, they have great survival skills and will take milk off anyone that offers, they also bond well with whatever feeds them, to the point the colour of the milk bottle matters. This is why the calf often forgets the mother once the belly is full of milk, as in nature the calf would then sit and digest the next 12 hours until mum comes back. If they get hungry earlier, there is always milk ready for them to drink.
The cow may want to come back and check on her calf, we always allow them to do so, they are never restricted and can freely walk back from the paddock to see their calf, as she knows exactly where she left it.
The farm runs approximately 350 Holstein dairy cows, a couple of Brown Swiss and Jersey cows, along with a small number of retired cows, who will never leave Boomerang Park. The average lactation length is 400 days with some cows only calving every two to three years.
The beef herd is made up of Hereford cows, two Speckle Park cows and some younger Shorthorn. Our bulls are Shorthorn and Lincoln Reds. The Hereford and Shorthorn/ Lincoln Reds breeds have a very quiet and placid temperament and the marbling is perfect in the meat.
From Farm to Community
Boomerang Park beef is made available through Warrnambool’s Lucas Brothers Butchers. Orders are offered via pick-up at the butcher shop in town. The beef sides are hung for two weeks to enhance tenderness and flavour, expertly butchered, then packed in freezer bags. We have opted to avoid the extra plastic of Cryovac and stick with the old fashioned butchers way of packaging. Double bagging at home is always a good idea.
Processing is with either Edenhope abattoir or MC Herd’s abbattoir, near Geelong, all stock goes together in their age group, this is to minimize stress from transport as they are not separated nor have other stock added, which is important for herd animals. A local stock transporter with a modern truck is engaged for this task.
This approach means Boomerang Park can only offer our local community a small quantity at a time, it ensures animal welfare right to the end, no stressful loading and unloading at sale yards or mixing with others. It also supports other local businesses in our area and leaves a quality product that has only two stops before reaching your plate, from our farm straight to the abattoir and then the butchershop. We are not aiming to feed the world, this is a very small family business, with a limited supply of home grown beef.
