03/04/2021 | News release | Distributed by Public on 03/03/2021 17:17
04 March 2021
No one would ever accuse King Island cattle producers Ana Pimenta and Tom Perry of lacking ambition.
In 2009, with no family farm to fall back on, the couple - both of whom have agricultural science degrees and had worked in agriculture - decided to become cattle producers. Through leasing, off-farm jobs and backing from the bank, they have built a business that supports their family of four. They now own 810ha of land and, at times, just over 2,000 head of predominantly Angus cattle.
'People did say it couldn't be done but we had a clear business plan and we did lots of analysis and research along the way into how to run a profitable beef herd and we took the risks,' Ana said.
'It was a steep learning curve, but we are proof you can be a first-generation farmer.'
Ana and Tom are now thinking bigger and applying their skills to preparing their enterprise to meet future consumer demands.
'Wouldn't it be wonderful if King Island was 100% carbon neutral? Imagine the possibilities for the marketing of our produce and for tourism. I think it could be done,' Ana said.
As well as working in the day-to-day cattle operations, Ana runs a farm tour business called Meat Your Beef, showing visitors to King Island how beef is produced.
Ana has a background in natural resource management and in 2020, in preparation for developing their own carbon management plan, the couple participated in the MLA pilot carbon accounting training.
'I wanted to learn what we have to focus on and which way to head to become carbon neutral,' she said.
'Doing the calculations made me realise it might not be as hard as I thought to be carbon neutral and we really are not that far away from carbon neutrality.'
Ana and Tom have identified their challenges and opportunities in the carbon neutrality journey as:
Challenges
Opportunities
'We support MLA in the quest to develop a robust carbon accounting system which all livestock producers can access. Even if you use it just to establish a baseline for benchmarking your system it has an important value,' Ana said.