Here at Our Cow, we are incredibly proud to work with a number of really special, caring, hard-working people, who not only supply us our meat, but really care about our customers, our team, and us.
The dedication of our farmers in ensuring their livestock are as well fed, happy and stress-free as possible really is second to none, and we love having the opportunity to learn from them as they share their personal experiences and family stories with us.
We're particularly proud to be working with so many ‘superwomen’ in Aussie farming; women who, in addition to being amazing farmers in their own right, juggle so many other responsibilities every single day. They're the women working every day to continue improving our communities, and moving the Agricultural industry in Australia forward with their business partners, families and teams.
From running the technical side of their farming operations, to managing the accounts and administration, marketing, logistics, as well as their own families and households, Our Cow’s leading ladies really do it all.
We think so highly of all the wonderful farmers we work with. Here we highlight the stories of a few of Our Cow’s ‘superwomen’; the farmers, businesswomen, and partners who keep everything ticking over, every single day.
A self-proclaimed ‘beach girl’ from Port Macquarie, Our Cow Founder Bianca first dipped her toe into farming when she and Dave bought their beef property in Baryulgil, NSW in 2017.
Making the move from city living to rural life was a big step for Bianca, however things quickly became even more difficult when drought and then devastating bushfires ripped through their property, leaving it literally looking like armageddon with one patch of grass and nothing to feed their cattle. However, from necessity comes invention, and from Bianca’s original idea of selling one body of their meat on Facebook came the thriving business that is Our Cow today.
Such success, however, doesn’t just happen by chance. Bianca is the epitome of doing whatever it takes to make ends meet. Never one to shy away from typically male-dominated jobs, Bianca worked in Central QLD in the mines as a FIFO worker before buying the farm in 2017, and mowed her neighbours’ lawns to help make money in the aftermath of the 2020 bushfires.
Bianca is also a volunteer rural firefighter and can usually be found either out on their property mustering cattle or in their Cow Town warehouse, picking, packing and labelling their produce. She also works extensively in marketing, technology and operations for Our Cow, and is all over the accounting and administration end of the business as well.
Bianca’s entrepreneurial spirit, exceptional work ethic and constant drive to support her community have made her the deserving recipient of several awards and grants. These include being the Winner of the 2022 Shine Award for ‘Belief’, a finalist in the 2021 and 2022 Australian Young Entrepreneur Awards, and the federal government’s Boosting Female Founders Initiative, in which she was awarded the second highest grant funding to date.
Not only is Bianca a leader in her industry and a role model for so many, she consistently does everything she can to help her local community, whether it be through donations, fundraisers or volunteering.
Michelle comes to us from her stunningly beautiful property "Eungella Shorthorns" on the Dorrigo Plateau of New South Wales mid-north coast. Along with her husband Steve, a fourth generation farmer, Michelle breeds their highly sought-after Shorthorn cattle, runs the farm and raises their three beautiful kids - and everything else in between!
Michelle does all of this and more, working every day on the farm while running the business to ensure their Shorthorn cattle remain world-class. In her precious spare time, she loves getting out on her motorbike with her kids, and caring for all the animals on her farm - including donkeys, horses and ducks, as well as cows!
For Michelle, knowing that partnering with Our Cow is doing so much to further her family’s future on their farm, as well as the future of sustainable farming and the food system in Australia, makes it all worth it.
She loves encouraging her own kids to learn about where their food comes from and believes Our Cow’s paddock-to-plate philosophy does just that for city kids all over Australia. Michelle’s love for her family and dedication to the everyday running of the farm is so obvious to all of us here at Our Cow, and we are so proud to be working with such a strong, positive and hard-working farmer like Michelle.
One of the first farming families we worked with is Emma-Rose and husband Sam from Sander Pastoral, between them they run a picturesque blacksoil farm near Warialda, Northern NSW.
Sam and Emma, along with their two gorgeous boys, took over the reins of the family farm, which not only includes a large herd of Aussie White Sheep, but also a broad acre cropping enterprise.
They’ve faced many challenges since, including making the switch from cattle to Aussie White Sheep after horrific drought. Today, their livestock is happy and healthy, feeding off the rolling green hills, but it wasn’t always like this.
We asked Emma-Rose why she like supplying meat to Our Cow, and she said:
"We saw what you're about and what you're doing and we think it's a great thing. It's so important to get out there how much we care about our livestock, and our plants - these sheep have had a good life and they're from a family who's cared for them. We know these lambs have been looked after the best we can, and we think it's a great thing having our meat go straight to customers of Our Cow. We love being onboard with you, we feel very lucky!"
Hannah and her husband Scott, fourth-generation farmers, run their 115 year old property, Doonkami, on the Macintyre River between Yetman and Boggbailla, NSW. Originally a shorthorn beef station, Hannah and Scott introduced their incredibly fertile and hardy Aussie White sheep to their property ten years ago, and absolutely love what they have produced.
For Hannah though, working on their family property means more than just earning an income. It allows them to raise their three young kids on the farm and give them the same special childhood on the land they both enjoyed themselves.
“Now having my own kids here, I 100% can see how lucky we are to raise our kids on this property. We have a lot of space and just the life experiences they get here are very special. You don’t understand it until you’re in there doing it yourself and you get to share those moments with them”.
Being able to live and work together as a family is so important for both Hannah and Scott, particularly as they have battled, like so many Aussie farmers, against the formidable Australian weather. In 2018 they experienced the worst ever drought on record, which was followed in 2019 by an even worse drought; only 163ml of rain fell the entire year. Hannah remembers waking up every morning and feeling like they were living on Mars. With the daily dust storms blowing and the place looking like another planet, she spent each day waiting for nightfall so that she wouldn’t have to face the barren, empty land.
“It was difficult to look at…with droughts going back to back, you wonder when it’s going to change and when you will see those seasons again”. But, as often happens, their luck changed overnight when 80mL of rain fell in four hours and 170mL more over the following week. Seeing their property back up and running now at its full potential is a real joy for Hannah and her family.
Hannah is yet another example of the hard-working, positive and caring women we have the pleasure of working with here at Our Cow. She loves how Our Cow helps those totally removed from rural properties to understand how their produce ends up on their dinner table and that it is a process reliant on the weather.
Knowing that working with Our Cow also brings stability and renewed hope for her kids’ futures on their farm makes the hard work all worth it for Hannah.
We are so proud to be telling their stories and inspiring so many other Aussie girls and women in the process. We work with so many amazing women in agribusiness and farming, and the women mentioned here are just a snapshot of the many passionate and hard-working women we're proud to work with.
Here at Our Cow we believe that all of our farming women deserve due recognition for all that they do. If you would like to contact one of our ‘Superwomen’ personally, message us via Facebook or send us a message through our website. Our farming ‘Superwomen’ love to hear from you, as do we! Keep up the great work ladies!
