There have been two large news announcements for the organic beef industry this week, one involving the launch of the world’s first Best Management Practice (BMP) program for organic beef, the second surrounding confirmation by Andrew Forrest that his large Western Australian cattle operation is going organic.

Channel Country based OBE Organic is Australia’s oldest organic beef marketing company.

This week it has announced that it is partnering with the Grazing BMP program intiated by AgForce, The Fitzroy Basin Association and the Queensland Government to deliver what is thought to be the world’s first best management practices program for organic beef producers.

The program will commence with an OBE Organic Grazing Best Management Practice forum in Roma on Friday 21 August 2015 (more details below).

Similar forums will then continue every six months to help organic beef producers continually improve their operations.

“Beef producers need to be great managers of all aspects of their business, and OBE Organic Grazing Best Management Practices lets them do that in a smart and targeted way,” OBE Organic General Manager Dalene Wray said.

“Organic producers are already meeting many elements of OBE Organic Grazing Best Management Practices, but it complements what they are already doing by pinpointing other areas of their business they can improve.

“With demand for OBE Organic beef far outstripping supply we desperately need more quality organic producers, and we think our current and new producers will see that organic beef premiums plus targeted best practice management skills will make them even better and more profitable.”The Grazing BMP is a government and industry-funded voluntary online self-assessment and planning tool. It benchmarks graziers’ current grazing and business practices against an industry-developed set of standards, compares their performance to peers, and automatically creates individualized action plans for improvement in areas that are below industry average.

OBE Organic is the Grazing BMP program’s first corporate partner.

“This partnership with OBE Organic, already a market leader in in its field, recognises that the Grazing BMP program delivers enhanced productivity to graziers, underpins environmental and ethical performance, and supports an excellent market opportunity,” Grazing BMP Industry Coordinator Michael Taylor said.

“This partnership is an exciting opportunity to build a world class demonstration of the industry’s performance and sets OBE Organic at the forefront of its market yet again. Agforce and its Grazing BMP partners look forward to a long and exciting relationship with OBE Organic.”

 

Meanwhile WA mining and cattle industry entrepreneurs Andrew and Nicola Forrest have this week confirmed they are pursuing organic certification for their 1.8 million hectare Minderoo Station in the WA Pilbara region “as quickly as possible”

“Really, Minderoo has been organic for about 130 years,” Mr Forrest told ABC Radio this week.

“Nicola is determined to make Minderoo organic because we believe in the health of our food.”

Mrs Forrest, the company’s CEO, said she believed few changes would be required to the operation and they hoped to receive accreditation within two years.

“Organic certification also gives a 10 per cent premium for the product that you sell,” Mrs Forrest said.

She said a composite herd is being bred on Minderoo based on Ultra Black Angus Bulls which would be suitable to both the local domestic market in WA and the boat trade.

“We’d like to be able to meet both markets and get the best price that we can.”

The ABC reported that steaks from the station have been branded as “iron grass fed” on menus at renowned chef Neil Perry’s Rockpool Group restaurants.

“Minderoo beef was on trial last year, just in Perth,” she said.”Neil Perry sent some samples around to his other restaurants and they all loved it.”So, stressfully for our station manager and myself, Andrew agreed to double the supply quantity.”It’s now in all the Rockpools across Australia, permanently on the menu.”

 

Mr Forrest told the ABC the beef had a unique flavour, thanks to the make-up of the Pilbara’s pastures.

“I’ve hosted, with Nicola, some of the finest chefs in Australia, Europe and north America at Minderoo,” he said.

“They’ve commented on the deep minerally [sic] flavour and the clean aftertaste of this iron-fed beef.

“The mineral content comes up through the herbages in the grasses and makes for very healthy, very peacefully living cattle.

“It’s just a delicious steak and I’m surprised it has gone as well as it has, but ever being the optimists, we planned for it.”

More information on the OBE Organic Forum at Roma: The first OBE Organic Grazing Best Management Practice forum will be held at Roma on Friday 21 August 2015 to introduce producers to the program and self-assess the areas of their business that can be improved. The day-long Forums will also include OBE Organic and other guest speakers to keep producers informed on the latest organic beef production news and trends. The Forums are free for all organic producers to attend, and conventional producers in conversion to organic or considering converting to organic beef production. More information on OBE Organic Best Management Practices is available at www.obeorganic.com, or by contacting OBE Organic General Manager Dalene Wray on 0439 224 968 or dwray@obeorganic.com.