THE Kelliher family has plenty to smile about.
As a matter of fact, so does their herd of cattle which stands knee deep in pastures throughout the family's picturesque Wandering property, home to Wandering Clover Fed Beef.
The trademarked brand, which promotes its philosophy of happy, healthy Clover Fed cattle, has recently celebrated its second birthday, supplying a quality consistent grass-fed product to the local market in an enterprise that is quickly gaining notoriety in beef loving circles.
The growers behind the project, Shane and Nicola Kelliher, aim to produce a seasonal product.
"Our cattle are completely pasture-fed and finished in the spring, so we only slaughter once a year," they said.
"This means our product can be bought fresh, divided into the cuts of the customer's choosing and frozen until ready for use.
"It is absolutely possible to get the same quality of taste when the product is frozen and thawed correctly."
The proof is in the pudding with the brand landing contracts to supply beef to three top Perth restaurants - Frasers Restaurant from December 1, Ku De Ta in mid-January and Nic&Kolo's. Nicola said the personal interaction she and Shane had with their customers meant a lot to them.
"The idea came out of friends and family asking if they could buy some beef from us and it expanded from there,” she said.
“We've had people suggest we export our product because it's so good, but we'd rather keep that level of personal connection within our business because it's a point of difference when coupled with our trademarked Clover Fed brand.
“And because we're the ones doing the farming, marketing, sales and delivering, the chefs at these restaurants are able to inform their customers that they have their beef delivered direct to their restaurant from the farm, by the farmers.”
Wandering Clover Fed Beef only sources its beef from the Kelliher Bros farming enterprise which, with Shane and Nicola's four children, David, Annabelle, Lucille and John, is now in its fourth generation.
Testing of their soil, standing crops and fodder informs their choices of fertiliser and allows them to target problem areas while using minimal amounts of chemicals.
Such close attention to their pastures means their herd is completely pasture fed with any supplementary fed grown on property in the form of either hay or silage.
The Kellihers guarantee it is just their mix of clover, rye and serradella pasture and oat and pea crops that provides the nutrition for Wandering Clover Fed Beef.
The operation is also one of the first beef enterprises in WA to hold the Pasture Fed Cattle Assurance System certification which also assures the cattle are hormone- and antibiotic-free.
The Kelliher family's herd has a Hereford-Shorthorn base, which Shane says in addition to its suitability for most markets, works well with the environment and level of rainfall on the property.
The Hereford-Shorthorn heifers are joined in early May at two years of age to Angus bulls regularly sourced from Narrogin-based Strathtay stud.
Shane said going against the trend of joining at 12 months had seen the minimisation of calving issues.
"If we are going to sell to a feedlot that year, we will sell the calves from the first joining as the Angus cross is quite popular, but depending on numbers we may carry those steers and heifers through ourselves," he said.
Once the Hereford-Shorthorn cross heifers have had their first calf, the following year they will be mated back to either a Hereford or Shorthorn bull sourced from a number of local studs.
"We try to maintain the blend within the herd, so if the cow is leaning towards more Hereford traits we'll mate her to a Shorthorn and vice versa," Shane said.
The steers from this joining head to the family's property in Darkan to be finished as yearlings for the Clover Fed brand while the heifers remain to become replacements.
There is a strong focus on animal temperament, which is one of the foremost criteria when selecting bulls, but is also a focus when handling the cattle.
"If we're pregnancy testing and the cow won't be calm in the crush, she'll go," Shane said. "We don't want animals with a poor temperament for the sake of the product and also for occupational safety when we're handling them."
Shane isn't afraid to get rid of stock in order to keep up consistency throughout the herd.
"When we're pregnancy testing, it's a great opportunity to give the cows an once-over," Shane said.
"If there are any signs of health or birthing issues we'll deal with it then and there are no second chances - if she's not pregnant, she's on the truck. We also do semen testing at the end of each season and if there are any problems the bull will go."
The Kellihers also use NLIS tag technology to track desirable genetic traits throughout their herd.
"Our bulls work in teams at around three per cent but we group them by stud or more specifically by bloodline when we can," Shane said. "We can't track the exact sire of the calves on the ground but we can compare which bloodlines and studs that are returning the most profit which informs our buying decisions going forward."
The Kellihers think they've joined the market with their Clover Fed brand at the perfect time as a lot of people are starting to question where their food comes from.
"It's obviously in our interest to keep our herd as stress free and as healthy as possible and we follow that philosophy throughout our business," Shane said. Their third generation relationship with Mitchell's Transport with its low stress handling focus shows the philosophy is followed even during the transport.
"It sounds like a bit of a cliche, but these days customers like to know that the beef they are buying came from a happy, stress free place where it had a good life," Shane said.
