Importance of diversity in farming industry
BELINDA Marriage is surprisingly pragmatic for the owner of a farm where the animals all have names.
While most dyed-in-the-wool farmers would be tempted to roll their eyes at a farming enterprise outside of typical commercial production values, Ms Marriage reckons it might be time for some fresh thought.
But far from decrying the “evils” of commercial farming, she believes there are definite advantages and disadvantages to all kinds of farming and the industry would benefit from farmers supporting each other.
Ms Marriage and Tim Rudduck run Tillari Trotters, an 80ha free-range rare-breed pig and sheep farm at Karara, near Warwick.
It was the first registered free-range piggery in Queensland.
She said people often saw free-range farming through rose-coloured glasses, choosing to focus on how lovely and “natural” it was for a pig to give birth in the paddock as opposed to a sow stall, but the realities of exposure to the elements and predators meant it didn’t come without its own risks.
But she and Mr Rudduck were passionate enough about trying to give their animals the best life they could before loading them up for a trip to the abattoir that they bit the bullet.
For Ms Marriage, the trip to the abattoir was always going to be painful, but having grown up on a cattle and cane farm, it was still just a part of life and she felt better knowing her animals enjoyed their life.
You don’t have to chat with Ms Marriage long to see how passionate she is about the future of farming, but a big part of that for her is getting back to nature.
A major motivator is her love of the Tamworth pig breed, a former commercial breed at risk of disappearing in Australia.
She said despite the fact they were bred in every way for commercial meat production, the science of piggeries had long outstripped traditional breeding methods.
Pigs were now bred for fast maturation over meat quality, flavour or even other commercial concerns like motherhood instincts.
Not content to be front-runners in just one area, Ms Marriage said they were one of the earlier adopters of self-shedding sheep, something they copped a fair bit of flak for at the time before the industry caught up.
She said while she completely understood why a merino sheep might require tail docking, there was no need for them to spend the considerable time and money it took to dock the tails of a herd that didn’t need it.
“We were really looked down on back then,” she said.
“I’m a big learner – I guess it comes from my nursing background – and I thought ‘why are we tail docking if there is no reason why?’
“With the self-shedding breeds, it’s all skin. There’s no wool there.
“But each generation just does the same thing as the one before and never learn anything different.”
She said despite her fairly individual ideas on farming, she didn’t approve of the
animal liberationist movement, which often spurned evidence-based research into best-practice animal raising in favour of sensationalist dogma.
“Farming with your heart is not always the best way to go, but we can sleep at night,” Ms Marriage said.
“But either way, Australian farmers need to stick together because it’s better to support each other as an industry because it’s better than imports.
“What we do fills a market and if each farmer doesn’t fill a market, someone will bring it from another country.”
❝ Farming with your heart is not always the best way to go.
— Belinda Marriage