Thursday, 21 March 2024

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (09:52): My members statement today is an opportunity to congratulate Chooks at the Rooke, a fabulous free-range, pastured egg enterprise at Cororooke in south-west Victoria. Since 2017 Xavier Prime and Kimberley Burridge have built a business producing the highest quality product with the highest care and welfare for their animals. Their eggs are used by some of the best chefs in Victoria. No opportunity is overlooked. The chooks follow their Angus cattle, which graze the grass first and leave manure. They can forage and scratch, and the process fertilises the land capturing carbon, improving soil health and building organic soil matter. Enterprises like this, and especially their cockerel business, have seen Xavier crowned Good Food Guide 2024 Innovator of the Year. While day-old male chicks are normally of no use to the egg industry, Xavier and Kimberley raise them on pasture for six months and have established a new market for their quality meat. They have won the Delicious Harvey Norman Produce Award trophy for Australia’s best paddock produce. Xav and Kim are an excellent example of how a successful farming business can be built by hard work, enterprise and respect and care for the animals raised. I congratulate them on their efforts and their well-deserved recognition and wish them every success in the future.