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As far as ‘harebrained’ ideas go, there’s no doubt Our Cow founders Bianca Tarrant and Dave McGiveron got it right when they decided to start selling their beef direct to consumers.
From a Facebook page advertising one body of beef, Bianca and Dave have grown Our Cow into a direct-to-consumer meat subscription business which now boasts an annual turnover of more than $20 million.
It’s been ‘a hell of a ride’ for the young graziers from Baryulgil in north eastern New South Wales, who initially set out to secure themselves a stable and consistent market for their livestock.
“We purchased our farm in 2017 and originally we were just turning off weaners for the annual weaner sales, but then we came into a couple of years of extreme drought, to then go through one of the worst bushfires Australia had ever seen at the start of 2020,” Bianca said.
“We were turning cattle off into a down market, and we needed to do something a bit different to be able to guarantee ourselves a price for our livestock and bring some stability to our farming operation, because we couldn't really see success for ourselves if we had to keep selling in such a fluctuating market.”
From humble beginnings
Dave and Bianca (pictured below) started their Facebook page with the goal of selling just one body of beef, but their expectations were exceeded from the outset.
“We worked with the local butcher in town to process the one steer we wanted to sell, but by the time we were ready to do that first delivery, we'd sold over six bodies’ worth of beef, so it was a scramble from the start to get that amount of meat processed and ready,” Bianca said.
“Then we borrowed a cold-room trailer and Dave and I drove from the Sunshine Coast all the way down to Port Macquarie, delivering beef to the people that had messaged us through the Facebook page and it's just continued to grow from there.
“Really early on we knew we would have to work with other farmers because the demand was far more than what we expected, and we also knew there would be lots of other farmers in the same boat as us that were wanting a more sustainable market to sell their livestock through.”
Today, Our Cow is supplied by farmers from across NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
The business sells beef, pork, lamb, and chicken, and has recently engaged with fishermen to sell wild-caught seafood.
“From a consumer perspective, we home deliver all across Australia every day of the week,” Bianca said.
“We offer a meat subscription as well, so consumers just sign up and get a box of meat at a regular frequency.
“This has been really pivotal in our business because it brings more stability to our farmers’ operations as they know the business keeps compounding month on month.”
The meteoric rise of Our Cow doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon, with plans to expand the range beyond protein products.
“We’re doing meat quite well, but we want to be able to supply our customers with produce that we’re sourcing from other farmers as well,” Bianca said.
“We have so many farmers contacting us from every industry every day and they want to know when are we going to start selling eggs, or when are we going to start selling milk.
“So, that’s the sort of stuff we want to be able to bring to our consumers; a wide range of products that we’re sourcing directly from farmers and helping farmers in every industry have access directly to consumers.”
It's a goal that's being backed by farmers, customers and investors alike, having recently undertaken a crowd fundraise with Birchal that saw over $1 million invested in the first day.
No slowing down
It’s been a crazy couple of years for Dave and Bianca, but they wouldn’t change a single thing.
“We certainly didn’t expect it to grow as quickly and as big as it has,” Bianca said.
“It feels like we’re starting to have a bit of an impact on the industry, which is what we always wanted; to be able to support farmers and to give consumers a way to support farmers through their daily food choices.”
They’re farmers at heart though, and their hope is to one day be able to return their core focus to their 1500 acres on the Clarence River where they run 200 Santa Gertrudis/Hereford-cross breeders, which they put Shorthorn bulls over.
“We’re only a very small producer in the world of Our Cow now, as we only have a couple hundred head that we poke in as they come along,” Bianca said.
“But farming has always been what we’re passionate about, it’s always been the dream, so we’d love to be able to expand our herd and get back to farming full time one day.”
