Farm reports: Gundooee Organic Wagyu
Here's a video update from Rob Lennon at Gundooee Organic Wagyu farm, about an hour out of Mudgee, NSW. We can't visit our farmers, so we've asked them to do a show and tell.
The last three years have served up a punishing rollercoaster of fire and drought at Gundoee and it's only due to Rob's regenerative land management and tenacity that the farm has survived. The last time we visited in September 2019, while the soil was healthy and the farm was faring much better than its neighbours, it was very dry and dusty. This is what it looked like.
So it's lovely to see Gundooee Farm looking so much more lush now and to see Rob frolicking cheerfully below among tall, waving grass.
Why farm reports?
Why farm reports?
The necessary Covid isolation regime has successfully reduced the infection curve but it's also increased the sense of distance most of us already have from the sources of our food. So, after the rollercoaster of drought, fires, flood and pandemic over the last six months, we felt it was high time for all of us to re-connect with the farmers whose produce we enjoy each week. We can't go to farms at the moment so we've asked them all to do a show and tell video so we can see what's happening on the ground.
Our last road trips visiting NSW farms were in August and September 2019 when Eastern Australia was three years into the drought that many called the worst in living memory. Before the terrible fires, before some recent rain trickled into dusty creek beds and before the Pandemic forced us into our bunkers. So much has happened since September 2019 that it's easy for those of us in the cities to forget that harsh drought and the time it takes for the land to recover. Let alone understand how it must be for farms and farmers withstanding a punishing trifecta of drought, fire and the commercial impacts of COVID-19.
This year almost everyone has had some rain and it's wonderful to see green pastures and full dams and cheerful, relieved farmers celebrating the reprieve. But it's important for those of us in urban Australia to recognise that while many farmers we know are rejoicing at the recovery that a the recent rain has triggered in their ecosystems, the forecast is for more dry weather ahead.
We've been buying and selling whole bodies of Gundooee Organic Wagyu since June 2010 and we've written about Gundooee many times in our newsletters and blogs. Here's a selection.
Report from a fire-ravaged farm: The aftermath at Gundooee organic Wagyu farm
Going against the grain: fire, drought and grain-feeding at Gundooee
Drought report: Gundooee Organic Wagyu, November 2018
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