Farmers wear a number of hats on any given day, and the role of “processor” is one that’s slowly proving to be an attractive one as consumers demand greater product provenance and farmers seek greater supply chain control.
After driving the conversion of her family farm from an unviable conventional mixed farm of 1500 acres to an award winning, ecologically, socially and financially viable, regenerative farming model, Michele Lally, a Paddock to Plate expert in the food industry, built South Australia’s first on-farm small scale red meat abattoir.
Since then, she has since started designing and manufacturing custom built units around Australia and off shore, and will be sharing her knowledge of on-farm processing at this years’ TECHSPO conference in Wagin this August.
Driven by the idealism of a fair food system while recognising the importance of branding, education and communication, Michele’s commitment to joining food producers and eaters is to ultimately bring back control of the food industry to those who grow it and those who eat it.
Believing that micro abattoirs allow for farmers to regain control over their supply chain whilst reinvigorating regional areas, Michele comments, “Micro Abattoirs offer livestock producers the ability to realise a full nose to tail value of their stock and sets them up to set their own prices rather than taking prices set by others in the industry. It will reinvigorate regional centres with new economic development, employment and further develop the story of stock being consumed in the same region as they are grown. It also offers producers the ability to reduce freight times, increase quality with lower stock stress prior to processing and provide more opportunity to develop value added products providing an increased bottom line in the overall farmgate profit.”
Joining her in leading TECHSPO’s breakout session “Livestock Value Add and Processing” is Chris Balazs, the CEO and Co-Founder of Provenir. He is one of the leaders pioneering true paddock to plate produce, through on-farm mobile abattoir technology.
Chris’s innovative and adaptive approach to an emerging sector of the food industry has seen Provenir achieve great growth over the last year, and has bought a whole new disruptive technology to the red meat industry that seek to improve animal welfare standards whilst increasing farmers slice of the value chain. Chris will be talking through his journey of creating Australia’s first on farm processing unit, including challenges from the consumer, farmer, regulator and tech perspective, to TECHSPO delegates. His presentation will aim to unpack these realities of on-farm processing, with delegates having the opportunity to ask questions directly in an intimate environment.
With another five breakout sessions on day one of the conference ranging in themes from Transformational Farming, Livestock Health and Wellness and Future Crops and Systems, TECHSPO looks to have something for not only livestock farmers, but crop farmers and agricultural industry professionals seeking to understand more about new technologies and opportunities.
To view the full program of events and purchase tickets, visit www.techspo.com.au. Tickets are selling fast, and there are strictly no door sales.