“We believe in farming that builds on a strong and viable agricultural base, while maintaining and regenerating the local habitats of our diverse flora and fauna. Everything we do on our farm begins with a regenerative and sustainable approach.”
The Breen Family
Ethical • Sustainable • Regenerative • Holistic
Hello! We are Randal, Juanita, Eli & Bridey Breen and we run Echo Valley Farm – a 300 acre property in the Goomburra Valley, South East Queensland.
Since our farming adventure began, we have developed, and continue to develop, a multi species integrated farming system that includes a range of enterprises such as cattle, sheep, poultry, pigs, hay/grain and seasonal small cropping.
Ethical, sustainable, regenerative and holistic farming. What does it mean to us?
When establishing our farming operation at Echo Valley, sound and ethical ecological farming practices took priority. Thinking long on how we could integrate these approaches into our farm systems, we developed the ‘4 Good’ principles.
‘Good for the animal, good for the land, good for the farmer and good for you’.
These 4 values are integral to every industry on farm, with each farming enterprise at Echo Valley having been thoughtfully established to be in harmony and linked to the other on-farm systems, creating a farm that not only applies the 4 goods, but is holistic in its approach.
With a diverse landscape of open grass grazing country, basalt uplands and remnant forested areas, we have found it is possible to create the perfect blend of environments, eliminating the need for chemicals and embracing what we believe is an ethical and regenerative approach to farming.
We were – and remain – committed to a whole farm model to ensure the long-term financial viability of our business, while also regenerating local ecosystems by contributing to long-term soil health through bio diversified agriculture practices.
By developing our farm in a way that is not only viable but also promotes the ethical treatment of animals and the land, we believe we can contribute to leaving the Earth in a better place for our kids and future generations.
This is why we at Echo Valley Farm stand for ethical, sustainable, regenerative and holistic farming.
Our process
We use sustainable farming methods to ensure consistently high quality produce, from paddock to plate.
We provide our animals a natural free to range life where they are able to express their natural instincts. Our commitment to the ethical treatment of the animals and utilising diverse farm practices that regenerate our landscape, fertilise our pastures, and heal our soils ensures we maintain healthy and happy livestock, farmers and consumers.
Pastured Chickens
Our 3000 hens are free to express their 'inner chookiness' in the great outdoors, all day, every day. Stocked at 500 hens to the hectare (that’s 20 square meters per chicken), they are grouped in small, age specific flocks and are supplemented with certified organic grain to balance their diet of fresh grass, bugs and grubs. Our ladies are kept safe behind portable electric fencing and are relocated every few days to follow behind our cattle, which is integral for pasture sanitation and fertilisation. With no antibiotics, no chemicals and no hormones, our girls are just happy hens producing delicious nutritious pastured eggs.
Bushranger Pigs
Our pigs are pasture raised in small groups and rotationally grazed in a combination of our open grazing grass country and our native forest bushland. This is land that traditional farming methods would place less value on, however with the pigs natural foraging and digging behaviour, it helps regenerate the landscape and activate once dormant grass and other plant seeds. We feed our stock supplementary chemical-free grains and utilise Sauerkraut produced from our friends at Gutsy Ferments. We believe this results in happy, healthy pigs that are free to express their inner piggyness. Oink!
Brangus
Our cattle are an integral link in our symbiotic integrated farming system; they are the catalyst that activates and utilises the pasture growth. We use holistic management principals and low stress stock handling techniques on our herd of Brangus cattle, allowing them to best display their natural grazing behaviour. This means that our herd is constantly on the move, like wild nomadic herbivores. We utilise temporary electric fencing to relocate our cattle as often as daily, enabling them to utilize every nook and cranny of our farm. Through the bio activity of the livestock and long recovery periods (as much as 180 days), we heal the soil, regenerate the landscape, sequester carbon and grow more grass.
Crops
At Echo Valley Farm we utilise ‘no-till, no-kill’diverse pasture cropping techniques in order to produce additional livestock fodder, chemical-free cereals and grain, as well as seasonal hay. This process was designed to exploit the full potential of the subsurface microbes, maintain living roots in the soil and plant matter on the ground at all times and feed subsurface life like earth worms. This enables us to begin healing the soil, rebuilding organic matter and stoping erosion throughout our land.