Longing for the farm life
AFTER a decade as a teacher, Stacey Gall’s longing for the land took her back to the family farm to raise her own children.
Ms Gall and her husband Harle bought a property on the Macintyre Brook, next door to her parents, where they raise their four children Zeb (11), Will (9), and the twins Andie (6), and Stella (6).
Ms Gall helps to run a plumbing business in Goondiwindi with her husband, as well as helping her mother and father run their farm, Whetstone Organics.
“I always wanted to come back and give farming a go, and it’s a lovely place to raise our kids,” she said.
“My grandfather bought the block when he came back from WWII.
“Dad left school and worked on the farm, but I wasn’t allowed to do that. Mum and Dad made sure that I finished school and university.”
Growing up on the farm has been a great experience for her kids, according to Ms Gall.
“They love it. Our eldest says he wants to be a farmer,” she said.
“He’s 11 and very interested.
“We’ll do what my parents did to me and make sure he has something else under his belt before he comes back to the farm.”
Ms Gall said her parents, Rick and Nonnie McDougall, reviewed their farming practices in the 90s and wanted to get more out of their land.
“They looked into organic farming practices and they thought that would suit the style of farming at the time which was growing lucerne and grazing cattle,” she said.
“They ran a successful organic business for 20 years until they decided to downsize six or seven years ago. This significantly reduced our viable farming country.”
When Ms Gall returned to the property, she and her father put their heads together to think of a new plan for production on their farm.
“We thought we would try fattening lambs. We went into that about three years ago,” she said.
“We’re in a learning phase going from cattle into sheep.
“We have dorper cross sheep that we graze on a lucerne, clover, ryegrass pasture. As well as native grasses.”
Whetstone Organics runs between 200 and 500 lambs on 50 hectares of grazing land.
“Stock levels vary because we supply a market every fortnight,” Ms Gall said.
“Mallow Organic Lamb is the processor in Stanthorpe. He supplies a number of markets and restaurants from the Tweed Coast up to the Sunshine Coast and out to Stanthorpe.
“We’re hoping with growing awareness of certified organic produce our market will grow. We’ve certainly seen a lot of growth in the last five years.
“They’re happy lambs and they’re raised to very strict standards and the finished product is beautiful.”
Ms Gall said because they have irrigation, their season hasn’t been too bad, but they will need some rain soon.
“Coolamunda Dam supplies the Macintyre Brook water scheme. At present the dam is at 40 per cent and the water year has just started,” she said.
“So we are probably going to struggle if we don’t have some water inflows into the dam by September.
“We have some dry land paddocks but they’ve haven’t been in use because we rely on rainfall to get production from them.”