THE Malone family, Talinga, Wrattonbully, was gobsmacked last week to hear that lambs they had entered at the recent Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards all won gold medals in their categories.
Their excitement levels increased even more when notified that they had also won the champion grassfed exhibit.
The awards follow successes at the Lambex 2014 competition in July to find Australia's Best Lamb, where they also received gold and silver medals.
Other than one rushed entry into a Melbourne competition the previous year, these competitions were the first time the Malone family had seriously entered such contests.
The Malone family enterprise on a 1500-hectare holding involves all members of the family, with a history spanning four generations.
Jim Malone and his wife Rosie are the third-generation and their children Will, Nick and Caroline are the fourth.
Will and Nick, who both hold Bachelor of Applied Science in Agriculture degrees from the University of Adelaide's Roseworthy Campus, work together with Jim operating the farm business, which involves the production of wine, crops, hay and prime lambs.
Will Malone and his wife Jen have two boys, Max and Sidney, while Nick and his wife Michelle have a daughter Annabel and sons George and Thomas. Michelle comes from a wine industry background, she is the family's viticulturist, and does the books, while Jen works for the Natural Resources Management Board.
This Malone Lamb story goes back four years when Nick Malone had a chance meeting with his friend and cousin Todd Malone. Todd had been working in Sydney in the meat industry for about 10 years and had just started at an outlet for Dominic O'Neill, who runs Grass Roots Urban Butchery.
"The question was asked about why they could not get lamb chops like this in Sydney, so the connection was made," Nick said.
The question of why producers could not get a premium for a superior product was one that had been going around in Nick's mind for quite a while.
This chance meeting was the catalyst to forming a partnership that provided answers for both parties. Four years on, GRUB is the only place in Sydney that sells Malone Lamb, with Dominic and his team playing a big role in the Sydney gold medal success by preparing the lambs Mr Malone and the family sent over.
"It is exciting to form an association with someone who is as passionate about quality food," Mr Malone said.
Twenty lambs a week are sold through the GRUB, but locally the Malones also selling their lamb through two local Naracoorte Hotels, plus the Naracoorte Caves catering outlet. Having already established their Malone Wine label, it was a logical step to brand their lamb product.
The family's prime lamb production is managed to cater for these outlets. They have an extended lambing over five months of the year, and irrigated pastures and hay production are important components in achieving the consistent high-quality demanded by consumers with a branded product.
With only about one-third of their lambs going into this premium trade, they still have a majority of lambs from their 2750 first-cross ewes marketable in spring and rely on the trade for sales, so the comparisons in systems and returns is an everyday experience.
"With the live lamb market, there was a time when you received a premium price if you produced the top lambs, but today the big processors and retailers dominate and no matter how good a particular producer's lambs are, they are generally paid the same grid price as anyone else," Mr Malone said.
"The secret to our success with the Malone Lamb venture, that now stands up for itself, is the development of personal relationships. We see ourselves as a link in the product chain part of a group of key people in the process of getting a top product to the consumer who is then willing to pay a premium.
"That group includes our genetic suppliers in the Allendale, Leenala and Wrattenbullie Poll Dorset studs, Days White Suffolks that are used over our maidens and ewe lambs, the Harvey family's Wongary-Paxton Border Leicesters that are used to produce our prime lamb dams, our wonderful processor Michael Richards at Richards Meats of Bordertown, and of course Dominic and the team at GRUB.
"We get the majority of our prime lamb sires from Allendale and, after its Adelaide success, the story could be headlined by 'Champion rams breed champion lambs'.
"A big advantage we have is that we are only two hours away from processing at Richards Meats so we can accomplish a very quick turnaround. The lambs can be processed on Monday, transported on Tuesday night, and in the shop in Sydney cut for sale on the Thursday.
"That quality preparation, including transit in bladder packs ensures little stress on the lambs, ideal and consistent meat colour which is a big selling point, better shelf life and most importantly, consistently better taste which is the ultimate test."
* Full report in Stock Journal, September 25, 2014 issue.
