Our Understanding of Growth

The standard way to understand growth is . . .

Growth = Export + Marketing

For this kind of growth we would need more land, more goats, a bigger
cheese room? We cannot have growth this way because we would step away
from our values and vision. Can we have growth without this model? How
about considering this equation . . .

Growth = Sustainability + Quality + Generosity

Growing Sustainability

Acknowledging we are custodians of the land.

Sustainability of the land and water:

• Learning and understanding the living soil and improvement through aeration and spraying microbes, making and spreading compost.
• Grazing pasture and native grass management. Planting trees for fodder.
• Not overgrazing with the goats or the kangaroos. Keeping a cap on the goats and work towards keeping kangaroo numbers at a sustainable level.
• Establishing a covenant on the land to protect all of this.
• Sustaining our life force – energy, inspiration, motivation, even down to the aesthetics of wrapping cheese
• Sunrise in the dairy
• Playful and gorgeous goats
• Metamorphoses of the milk into cheese
• Knowledge, thinking, experimenting
• Interacting with other farmers
• New projects with soil, goats, cheese and machinery

Growing Generosity

• Sharing and exchanging knowledge and enthusiasm with vet students, international agriculture students, slow food days, work experience and young farmers groups
• Employment practices and opportunities

Creating work that maintains interest, offers and encourages training, keeps a mutual exchange of ideas and values people’s contributions. We have formalised job descriptions, work contracts, performance appraisals, feedback, letting workers set goals.

Growing quality

Growth in quality comes from improving milk production by

• Improving goat breeding.
• Having a closed disease free-herd but buying in bucks if needed to improve genetic diversity.
• Providing better feed quality for the goats on the farm.
• Allowing people to come to the farm to share ideas and skills
• Developing and continually refining our cheeses.
• Never stopping learning about our product and other products. Always producing a consistent quality product.
• Quality looks at the bigger picture of cheese making and the connection between the land and goats.
• Engaging with people at farmers markets.

Our farm is small, producing high quality and desirable cheeses.

We don’t get side tracked by others agendas.

The heart of a business started years ago.

We are ethical, idealistic and can stay in business.