When Fiona and Bill Aveyard looked to a future that could include their four children in their farming business they decided it could not be business as usual.

Fiona and Bill run a mixed farming property at Tullamore with cropping, a Merino ewe base and prime lamb operation.

Crossbred Merino and Suffolk ewes are joined to a Dorset ram to provide a second cross prime lamb.

They decided to use this base as a means of value adding through vertical integration with the development of their Outback Lamb brand in 2017.

Initially processing and packaging to deal direct with consumers they now have developed relationships with butchers to deal directly through them, sharing a truck with other producers to deliver their lamb products to butchers in Sydney, Wollongong and Dubbo.

But they decided they needed to rethink their operation to further value add and have now developed the Outback Lamb Sausage Rolls.

Working with Ben from Condobolin Bakery they have the recipe down pat and are ready to start marketing to distributors.

“We will keep doing our other lamb products” Fiona said, “but we hope to focus on the value add of the sausage rolls. We hope to produce as many as we can.”

“We had hoped to be in stores by now but sowing and the Covid 19 issues have delayed things a bit but we are all ready to go.”

“The packing machine is on the way, the recipe is finalised, has been taste tested with great reviews and Ben has the capacity to produce up to 15,000 sausage rolls a week.”

“We wanted to work within the local community as we are passionate about keeping our communities sustainable. We’re proudly local and we attend as many community events as we can,” she said.
At the Beers to the Bush Festival in Dubbo, the Aveyards served up Outback Lamb sausage rolls which are preservative free which suits the current trend.

“People really liked them and we are also using compostable green packaging.”

“People really liked them and we are also using compostable green packaging.”

“Our ethos is to use all the lamb, work to create jobs in our local community and create opportunities for our children to be involved in the business in the future. They are only young yet but if they want to work with us then we need those opportunities to be there.”

Outback Lamb are also proud to be co-branding with the charitable organisation Thankful4Farmers.

“For every sausage roll we sell 10c goes towards bridging the gap between brands, consumers and agricultural communities,” Fiona said.

“Thankful4Farmers have been very supportive of Australian farming and rural communities so for every sausage roll you buy you will be helping to give back to Australian regional communities and its people.”

By Anne Coffey.