Our Shire is blessed with a bounty of local food producers who have helped forge a ‘foodie heaven’ reputation for the Bellingen Valley. The Bellingen Shire News caught up with owners of Levenvale Farm at Hydes Creek- home to Bello Beef and The Patch Organics- to look their approach to local food production
By Michael Burt
Healthy soil means healthy life is the ethos behind organic beef production at Levenvale Farm.
The 200-hectare farm spans Hydes Creek and is the home for a 100-cow Angus Cattle herd, the Bello Beef brand and The Patch Organics free range chickens and market garden.
It is also home for owners Georgina and Sam Baker, who have adopted a vastly different approach to fresh food production compared to their former broadacre cropping farm in Queensland.
“Sam is a third-generation farmer from Queensland. It was a conventional broadacre cropping farm that involved lots of ploughing and the use of chemicals,” Georgina said.
“I had moved up there from the city and we had a child who soon started suffering from eczema. We started to look at what we were eating as the cause.”
Soil tests on the Queensland property revealed a lack of magnesium, zinc and calcium- three elements that are all important for good gut health.
“A few other things happened that made us look into our farming practices and that led us to a course on farm business management and regenerative agriculture.”
“We then started looking for a second farm in a different area with a different climate and that led us to Armidale first and then to the former dairy farm at Bellingen.”
The property was one of the original dairy farms of Bellingen owned by the Kethel family, who had started converting it to organic beef production.
“Sam has a strong connection to land, and he said this is it.”
The Baker’s became the stewards of the farm in 2019 and began applying their learnings on regenerative agriculture and business management.
They also sought advice from local experts like 5th generation farmer Geoff Basset, who runs Farmmojo consultancy service in Dorrigo.
“Geoff was one of the first people we lent on for knowledge. He wrote us a gypsum and lime application program to start improving soil health.”
Sam and Georgina also adopted a natural fertiliser program from Nutri-Tech Solutions (NTS).
“Sam has discovered that rest is probably the most powerful tool in this environment, so he observes and rests paddocks.”
Georgina said the cattle herd are rotated around almost 60 paddocks on the farm, which allows pastures and soil to revitalise without grazing for up to nine months.
“Rotating and resting paddocks also helps with animal health management s it breaks the cycle for parasites likes worms.”
“When we implement new organic farming practices, the results are not instant like in conventional farming.”
“Our mission continues to be focused on the land and to farm in a more sustainable way, to leave the land in a better condition than we found it, to regenerate the environment through improved soil health and plant diversity.”
The cattle are processed off-farm through a butcher based at Korora and the grassfed beef is sold as Bello Beef online at Levenvalefarm.com.au and through distributers like Bello Food Box.
In addition to Bello Beef, they also have a Farm Shop, and host events, workshops, tours, and offer farm stays and venue hire for private weddings and functions.
Sam and Georgina also have a land-sharing arrangement with the owners The Patch Organics, who grow free range chickens and fresh produce from a market garden.
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