Mt Beckworth Free Range

Hello we are Diane & Chris of Mt Beckworth Free Range. We raise pigs, goats, geese and other poultry. With over 35 years of farming experience we choose to farm ethically and free range as we believe animals should be free to roam and express their natural character.

For the past 8 years we operated a specialty butcher shop called Spa Venison in nearby Daylesford supplying both retail customers and restaurants with our top quality venison and other meat, the majority raised on our farm.

In 2006 we saw an opportunity to farm deer and sell venison direct to retail customers and highly regarded restaurants, so we established our shop Spa Venison, in Daylesford. As the drought hit and export prices dropped many farmers turned away from deer. Our business however enjoyed the unique position of being able to both farm deer and supply packaged venison, so thanks to our loyal customers we held a niche market. With venison as its key product, our retail butcher shop was so successful we could barely keep up with demand. In addition, we also sold free range goat, pork, geese from our own farm, and other meat products sourced from nearby farms.

In April 2014 the game abattoir which we used to process our deer was sold, and the new owners stopped processing venison. Our next closest option for processing venison is in Myrtleford, over 400km away from our farm. This forced us to stop farming deer, and to therefore stop selling venison as our farm was by far the shop’s biggest supplier of venison.

For us there was no other choice. As free range and ethical farmers, we were simply not going to put our livestock through that long journey to the abattoir from an animal welfare perspective, not to mention the food miles involved.

With venison, our signature product suddenly unavailable to us we no longer had the point of difference we had built our retail business upon, and that set us apart from our competition. Our much loved shop in Daylesford was no longer commercially viable competing with two other quality butchers, and a major supermarket also in town.

So with much sadness we were forced to close the doors in April this year.

During the following months we have focused on our farm and livestock and considered plans for what's next.

Thank you to the many people who have called or emailed and asked about the return of our products. Your expressions of interest have been most encouraging and we are looking at ways we can restructure our business so that we may continue to supply you with our high quality meats.

We are now ready to take the next step on our farming journey.

Thank you to everyone that supported our Pozible project!

We are now in construction of our on-farm butchery and can not wait to begin selling our farm raised meats direct to you!

Please 'like' our page to follow the story of our progress on the farm.