Mulloon Creek Natural Farms take a different approach in free-range chicken operation

Mulloon Creek Natural Farms has found its perfect frontman in Michael Fitzgerald.
[Image: Sarah Hudson, The Weekly Times]

Mulloon Creek Natural Farms are never far from the spotlight.

The 2300ha across two properties in NSW’s Southern Tablelands has featured in TV shows, books and hosted numerous Australian farmers.

Four years ago Michael Fitzgerald — at the time managing a 3240ha conventional cattle property in northern NSW — was akin to a groupie.

“I’d read the books, seen the TV shows and been following the property for years because I’d always been curious about people who farm differently,” Michael recalled.

In 2015 Michael hit a career jackpot when he became manager of Mulloon Creek Natural Farms (MCNF), working with owner Tony Coote until his passing last year. As a business MCNF’s main venture — since 2004 — is organic, free range, Humane Choice-accredited egg production, from hens run on biodynamic pastures.

MICHAEL FITZGERALD

BUNGENDORE

MANAGES Mulloon Creek Natural Farms over 2300ha

MAIN venture is organic egg production

SUPPLIES up to 85,000 eggs to Sydney and Canberra retail shops

ALSO runs 200 black and Devon cattle

There are 25,000 hens on a 590ha property as well as about 8000 chicks in a brooder shed, brought to the farm as day-old birds and released to paddocks at about 14 weeks, guarded by 23 Maremmas. The stocking rate is well under the government’s regulated 10,000 birds/ha at 250/ha, with hens kept in mobile laying sheds, moved every few days.

The business supplies up to 85,000 eggs to Sydney and Canberra retail shops each week. The farm also runs 200 black and Devon cattle, including 100 breeders, currently destocked because of drought conditions. Weaners up to 300kg are usually sold via AuctionsPlus.

A straight-faced Michael also added they graze up to 2000 kangaroos.

“When you consider a kangaroo is equivalent to up to 1 DSE they have a massive impact on grazing pressure and have forced us to destock. It’s a huge problem up here,” he said.

INNOVATION GENERATION

AS successful as the business is, it’s MCNF’s farm management philosophy that has brought the fame.

Tony Coote initially bought land in the area in 1968 and in 2011 he and his wife Toni created The Mulloon Institute, a non-profit farming research, education and advocacy charity that monitors and shares innovative approaches to regenerative land management. Since his passing, MCNF’s ownership and management has been handed to The Mulloon Institute, with all profits directed to support the institute and Michael answerable to a board of management, overseeing about 25 staff.

While the institute now works with farmers across Australia, originally their regenerative management started on the 1740ha home property, 15km from the town of Bungendore. It was here Tony and his mate Peter Andrews developed their Natural Sequence Farming project, restoring a multiple series of wetlands to “bank” water in the landscape, making the property resilient even in the current drought.

Michael said while the institute has done considerable work banking water along the farm’s frontage to Mulloon Creek, it was the regenerative practices he adopted in whole of farm management that was the main contributor.

A good example was MCNF’s use of piles of several hundred kilos of compost, strategically dotted through the landscape to act as artificial contours to capture and absorb rain, aiming to create about 150 piles in the next two years.

“Originally wetlands on this property would capture the water, then it would move through a chain of ponds. So with the compost we are mimicking that stepped process to catch water and build fertility,” Michael said. “We are holding on well despite the drought.”

NATURAL APPROACH

MCNF uses Allan Savory’s holistic planned grazing, with grazing based on constant monitoring and flexibility.

Michael said he aimed to always keep up to 2000kg of dry matter in pastures, with the biggest challenge ensuring pastures don’t get heavily grazed by kangaroos and then killed off through frost, with temperatures dropping to as low as -10C in winter.

“We could run twice as many cattle but we have to adjust our numbers to allow for total grazing pressures,” he said, adding they were considering erecting about 15km of exclusion fencing in the next three years.

MCNF is certified organic and biodynamic.

Chooks are fed apple cider vinegar, copper, sulphur and diatomaceous earth and cattle are fed seaweed meal to boost health. At times they have even used homoeopathic remedies for chooks. Pastures are sprayed with the biodynamic preparation of cow horn manure or 500, which is made on the property (first burying cow horns filled with manure in the autumn, which is dug up in the spring, stirred in water and sprayed as a fertiliser). The biodynamic silica preparation of 501 is also sprayed on pastures.

The vet will be called if it is a case of animal welfare.

Michael said their Humane Choice accreditation replicated many of the systems required to be organic, including perch and laying space, as well as water testing.

He said part of his role was to keep records to show how these alternative practices were helping the land and animals.

“I don’t knock conventional guys and I come from a conventional agricultural background. People can be critical, or think these kind of practices are weird, but we have to start thinking about the effects of food production on people.”

Reproduced with permission.

Written by SARAH HUDSON, The Weekly Times, 18 September 2019. View original article.