Steaking out a business

To fulfil her paddock-to-plate vision, beef producer Hayley Pattison bought a butcher in Deniliquin, NSW.

Story Carly Marriott  Photo Zoe McMaugh

Hayley Pattison is a beef farmer and mother of three who had a business problem. Based in Wakool, southern NSW, she wanted to trial selling her own branded beef online. But things very quickly got out of hand after she launched Pattison Pastoral into cyberspace – within 12 months her small business had quickly spiralled into a big business. It’s certainly a problem many producers would like to have. 

Hayley, a fourth-generation Poll Hereford stud farmer, can now be found with 4-year-old daughter Zali on her hip, inspecting her herd of 280 cows and calves – mostly Angus, Herefords and black baldies – and 600 merino ewes with a terminal sire on the family property Minmi at Burraboi, near Wakool, southern NSW. “It’s been a steep learning curve,” she says.

Hayley grew up near Bathurst, her family running the Stanford Poll Herefords stud. She studied agricultural science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, and met her husband Matt. The pair share a love of pig hunting and fishing, and they lived at Moulamein, managing a nearby property. 

After buying a 728ha weekender, the Pattisons moved to Wakool in 2011 with their 3 children. They bought two adjacent farms, bringing their total farm size to 1700ha. Then they decided to create a paddock-to-plate venture, buying Bimbella Beef Butchery in Deniliquin (now run as Pattison Pastoral Butchery). 

“The COVID-19 pandemic had people thinking about where their food came from. Which is a positive thing for those of us growing it,” Hayley says. “I decided to get a better understanding of where we were going by doing a business development course through Western Murray Land Improvement Group, and that played an integral role in bringing my idea for Pattison Pastoral boxed beef and lamb to life. It also helped me build a website, so I was able to trial selling meat online – and we launched with just one product – a 20kg box of beef for just $400 and it sold well.” 

Cattle and lambs from Pattison Pastoral are taken to Hardwicks at Kyneton and Gathercole’s in Wangaratta, then delivered to Pattison Pastoral Butchery in Deniliquin to be packaged and distributed to customers via the shopfront and through online sales throughout Victoria and NSW.