ANDREW and Anne Thompson, Dinninup, are clearly passionate about their beef cattle.
They own the Venturon Charolais stud, a commercial beef breeding herd and the Boyup Brook IGA.
"We bought the IGA in 2009 and we always had it in our minds that we wanted to see our own beef on the shelves," Anne said.
And just 12 months after the purchase date Anne and Andrew achieved that goal.
The Thompsons have always been involved in beef cattle, originally running a commercial herd and in 1994 they established the Venturon stud.
Since then they have been steadily increasing their herd size and now run 50 purebred females and 200 commercial females.
"The commercial herd is made up of Angus, Murray Grey and Chargrey females and Venturon Charolais bulls," Anne said.
"And we also have a small sheep flock."
Their passion for beef cattle has also passed on to their son Harris who at the young age of 14 owns his own Murray Grey stud.
Harris is already showing promise as part of the future of cattle breeders in WA and had recently been selected to travel to Wodonga, Victoria, as a youth ambassador on behalf of the Murray Grey Society.
In 2009 when the Boyup Brook IGA came up for sale Anne said she was working in Collie and looking for a business to keep her closer to home.
"We always did our shopping there and I always thought it had a good feel," she said.
"And then it came up for sale so we went for it."
The IGA, being the only supermarket in town, not only offered the Thompsons a steady and solid business venture but also gave them a chance to more actively market their own Venturon Charolais beef.
Anne said it took a lot of organising and negotiating to get the Venturon label onto the IGA shelves but it was well worth the effort.
Since 2010, when they started stocking their own beef they have not looked back.
"We received a lot of support from IGA when we first approached it about stocking Venturon beef," she said.
"And as we don't have the space to break down a body we have also had to out source it to a processor."
At the moment Kevin Armstrong from The Beef Shop in Maddington processes the Thompson's beef but in the beginning the Dardanup Butchering Company was involved in helping Anne and Andrew set up their venture.
Anne said the recent development of the multi-million dollar IGA processing plant in Canning Vale could also offer them another processing possibility.
"At the moment the distance is an issue as it seems silly to truck the cattle up and truck the beef back but it could be an option in the future," she said.
The last 12 months have seen Anne and Andrew manage their first year-round supply of Venturon Charolais beef onto the IGA shelves.
"This required different calving patterns and it was good to be able to achieve that in our first year," Anne said.
"Now it is just about growing the venture."
Anne said Boyup Brook locals had been wonderfully supportive of their Venturon beef and in the future they would like to expand the label to include local producers who had purchased Venturon bulls for their own commercial beef herds.
"We already stock pork from Killara Free Range Pork, Boyup Brook, owned by the Bradfords as well as sausages from the Pensini's Blackwood Valley Beef," she said.
"Other local products are olive oil from Dinninup Grove, Red Hill, and Grindon who also supply dukkah.
"We also do sides of beef for customers on request so this will vary the amount of beef processed and we have secured a butcher to make gourmet sausages for us which we are currently negotiating."
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