Benbullen Downs takes prime lamb straight to consumers

Nicholas Christensen and Cody McLellan started their prime lamb operation at Benbullen Downs, 32 hectares of traprock country about 10 kilometres west of Stanthorpe, two years ago.

They run 500 ewes across Benbullen Downs as well as on about 1214 hectares of leased country. But it was only about 12 months ago that the duo started to take their lamb straight to the consumer, a move that has paid off.

In addition to selling their lamb at local markets and through direct orders, they are supplying O'Mara's Hotel and the Queensland College of Wine Tourism in Stanthorpe and an Inglewood grocery store.

"In the dry we weren't getting good enough money for our lamb, so that's when we thought we'd diversify and go to the way of selling directly to the customer," Mr Christensen said.

"It's one of the best decisions we've made.

"We wanted to do 10 lambs a month and we're doing between 10 and 16 lambs a week now.

"COVID-19 was a godsend for us because in the middle of it, people wanted to buy direct from the farmer so that was helpful for us."

Mr Christensen said word of mouth and the Benbullen Downs Facebook page were behind the growth of the business.

"We've had a lot of repeat customers," he said.

Between the two of them Mr Christensen and Mr McLellan, who met through campdrafting circles, have plenty of experience working with both sheep and cattle.

Mr Christensen has worked more with cattle, including through seedstock giant Palgrove, but after working on a sheep station, knew he wanted his own place.

Both men know the importance of good stock handling and quality working dogs are a key part of their operation.

Throughout dry conditions, Mr Christensen and Mr McLellan bought in lentils to supplement their flock's diet to keep in line with their aim for a purely grass-fed product.

That same ethos is also behind plans to grow oats using water from their irrigation dam to finish the lambs, as well as a recently-purchased fodder shed for barley sprouts.

The business uses Australian White rams from Springdale Australian Whites over their Dorper ewes, with their first lambs on the ground this season after an October joining.

"The older lambs that are dropping now, the weight gain's just insane and they look great," Mr Christensen said.

Although Nicholas Christensen did a butcher's apprenticeship while he was at school, he soon decided it wasn't for him and traded it in for cattle work in the Gulf Country.

But after pivoting the Benbullen Downs business to sell prime lamb at Stanthorpe's markets, all that butchery knowledge has come back to the fore.

"Having the knowledge does help and when customers ring up, you can steer them in the right direction for what they want," he said.

"We've got people in Toowoomba that ring and want us to do the markets there but we're doing a good job where we are at the moment.

"We don't want to go too big too quick."

For the moment, the duo plans to keep going at their current pace for about a year before looking at further expansion.

After battling dry conditions, 2021 is looking up with Benbullen Downs recording 180mm for the year so far.

As for the quality of the lambs, Mr Christensen said the end product spoke for itself.

"We've got a nice layer of fat on there and the percentage of meat on there's been perfect," he said.