Top beef on range
MEAT- LOVING foodies will be in T- bone heaven when they visit Geoff and Leanne Haines’ wagyu beef farm near Malanda today as part of the Innisfail Feast of the Senses festival.
The festival, which started yesterday and finishes on March 27, includes four days of food trails covering all things edible including the three B’s – beef, barramundi and bananas.
Feast of the Senses manager Kirsty Densmore said the festival, now in its 16th year, had grown from being an event that promoted locally grown fruit to one that celebrated all things tropical.
“The emphasis is still on food, but the festival is now a cultural event as well with singing and dancing. On Friday night we have a food fair which has always had an international theme, but this year it will be Australian,” she said.
Today’s food trail will feature the Haines’ Tableland wagyu beef as well as Rainforest Bounty at Malanda and the Mungalli Creek Dairy at Millaa Millaa.
Other food trails will be held on Monday and Tuesday.
Mr and Mrs Haines started their wagyu beef operation in 2004 and since then it has gone from strength to strength.
They are in fact “accidental” wagyu breeders. It was just by chance that they started breeding wagyu.
“I happened to be doing some work on a property south of Charters Towers. The owner gave me a roast one night. I cooked it and couldn’t believe how good it tasted. It was wagyu- cross. That’s how we became interested,” Mr Haines said.
“Now we breed and fatten our own cattle. The meat is sold online and at local and coastal markets. We have regular buyers in Cairns and Townsville and have even had our beef taken to China.”
Mr and Mrs Haines fatten their cattle on improved grass and legume pasture on their Butcher’s Creek farm set in the foothills of Queensland’s highest mountain, Mt Bartle Frere.