Kirrily and Derek Explain Conscious Farming
We are Kirrily and Derek Blomfield, and we are dedicated to nourishing you with the grass-fed beef and lamb we raise. Our name, The Conscious Farm, reflects how we farm—with mindfulness and care. We consider the impact of every decision we make, thinking deeply about our soils, water, animals, and the wider environment.
We are passionate about the quality of our beef and lamb and how they nourish both your family and ours. Our approach is holistic: we care for our local community, business finances, and the legacy we leave for future farmers. Regenerating our farmland, soils, and pastures by working with nature is central to what we do. We care for our cows and sheep and enjoy the process of farming.
Together with our sons Patrick and Reilly, we run our family farm on the fertile Liverpool Plains of northwest New South Wales, Australia. Our farm covers black soil plains, slopes, and hills that overlook the region. Derek’s father Sandy is part of our day-to-day farm operations. Derek’s grandparents started farming this land in 1946, but much has changed since then!
We love running a family farm business despite its challenges. We produce nourishing grass-fed beef and lamb, offering them directly to Australian consumers—families and individuals conscious about health, food quality, and ethical production.
Conscious farming is a form of sustainable agriculture that emphasizes thoughtful stewardship of natural resources, soil health, biodiversity, and animal welfare, all while maintaining farm profitability and community well-being. It prioritizes working with nature to regenerate the land and produce food in a way that supports current and future generations sustainably.
Caring for the Land
We manage our farm with the goal of regenerating soils, pastures, and biodiversity by applying Holistic Management grazing principles. This approach helps us keep the soil covered with plants and plant material, acting much like garden mulch. This cover improves rainfall infiltration and ensures clean water runoff. It also encourages natural tree regeneration, increases biodiversity, and aids in drought-proofing our farm.
Our goal is to support as much diversity on the farm as possible—both in the plants above the soil and the biology and microbes below it. While we would love to diversify our productive species beyond cattle, that’s a story for another time!
Farming is not without its challenges; growing more and better pastures amid increasingly variable weather conditions tests us. Nonetheless, we continually strive to do our best.
Holistic Management grazing mimics natural herd movements to improve soil health by increasing soil organic matter, enhancing water retention, and promoting ecosystem resilience. Livestock are rotated strategically to ensure plants can fully recover, reducing overgrazing and fostering carbon sequestration. This regenerative approach helps reverse land degradation, restore biodiversity, and improve the sustainability of farming systems.
Grazing with Intent
Where possible, we graze our cows and sheep in smaller paddocks at higher densities. This mob impact breaks the soil surface, stimulating the germination of new plants while pressing organic plant material into the soil. This organic matter insulates the soil and helps prevent weeds from germinating.
Grazing more evenly across the paddock distributes manure uniformly, fertilizing the soil without souring concentrated areas. We move the animals to new paddocks before plants regrow, allowing vegetation to restore energy stores and develop into more robust plants over time.
This natural grazing pattern mirrors the traditional movements of wild herds worldwide, creating the deep fertility once found on the Great Plains of North America. We find this process fascinating and integral to regenerative farming.
Holistic Management grazing principles support this grazing style by mimicking natural herd behaviors—concentrating livestock in defined areas temporarily before rotating them to fresh pastures. This process promotes soil health through trampling organic matter into the soil, spreading nutrient-rich manure evenly, and allowing plants sufficient recovery time. Such management enhances biodiversity, water infiltration, and pasture resilience, ultimately supporting sustainable land regeneration and animal well-being.
Regenerative Agriculture
“There is much buzz around sustainable agriculture, but we believe we need to regenerate the world’s soils, not just sustain them.”
Carbon plays a vital role in healthy soils, enhancing moisture retention, nutrient storage, and structure while boosting rainfall infiltration. Much carbon has been depleted from soils, particularly in Australia. By aligning with nature’s mineral cycles, we restore carbon to the soil, benefiting both land health and climate stability.
Plant roots exude sugars into the soil to feed microbes, facilitating mineral exchange; these sugars carry carbon that microbes stabilize within the soil. This process thrives only with diverse soil microbes, which diverse plants support. Chemical fertilizers disrupt this sugar flow, blocking carbon buildup.
This explains our commitment to nature-aligned practices and diverse pastures! Beyond soil, it ensures vibrant pastures for our cattle, delivering health benefits through consciously produced grass-fed beef raised in India under strict Australian standards.
Caring for Our Cows
We manage our cows and sheep ethically and humanely. They graze calmly in low-stress environments on open, free-range pastures. We apply Bud Williams low stress stock handling principles, which respect the animals' personal space or 'bubble'—much like our own. Entering this bubble causes unease, so we handle them mindfully to minimize stress.
Creating a safe, happy workplace and home means keeping our animals content in the paddocks. We genuinely care for them, always providing abundant clean drinking water and ample pasture.
Diverse Pastures Nourish Best
Pasture diversity benefits the environment, our animals, and the nutritional quality of our grass-fed beef. Healthy, thriving cows produce nourishing beef that supports the health of conscious eaters.
Plants offer secondary compounds like tannins, polyphenols, and alkaloids—nature's medicines. A variety of plants delivers a full spectrum of these compounds for optimal animal health.
This commitment to diverse pastures, rather than monocrops, stems from our Indian operations guided by rigorous Australian standards, ensuring ethical welfare and superior meat quality.
Profitability is Part of Sustainability
We strive for profitability in our farm business while pursuing our goals of regenerating the landscape. Our aim is to create opportunities for our children to join the farm if they wish, maintaining its financial viability for everyone involved. We embrace the triple bottom line—balancing environmental, social, and financial performance in all our activities.
We view ourselves as custodians of the land, responsible to future generations who will depend on it, whether our family or yours.
Activities on the Farm
Our days involve checking and moving cattle, evaluating pastures, managing portable water and fencing, monitoring the health and well-being of our cows, and innovating ways to grow our business. We constantly consider how to best connect with you, our valued customers.
Regenerative farming models demonstrate that profitability and sustainability can coexist through practices like direct-to-consumer sales, reduced input costs, and premium pricing for ethically produced goods, ensuring long-term viability in operations like ours in India under Australian guidance.
What Are You Waiting For?
Our beef hampers provide multiple ways for you to experience the rich flavor of our grass-fed beef yourself.
Our 10kg Nourish hamper is perfect if you have a smaller freezer, while the 10kg Classic Steak hamper or the 14kg hamper suits those who love BBQs and want a variety of cuts.
There are plenty of choices available, and we are confident you’ll taste the difference that conscious, ethical farming imparts.
Order your hamper online today to enjoy premium-quality, Australian-standard guided grass-fed beef raised responsibly in India, delivered fresh and vacuum sealed for your convenience.
