The Farm
Logboy farm is a 540-acre valley farm consisting of predominantly native grass grazing land. Only approximately 30 acres of it would be considered uncleared forest land, even then that forest is regrowth resulting from burns and minor clearing in years past. The rest is mostly Iron bark and Bluegum speckled hilly grassland with open alluvial flats. There are also some small patches of remnant softwood scrub. There are three riparian zones that run through the farm, the largest of which is Nangur creek, that runs the width of the farm. The rainfall average is 683mm.
Between circa 1930 to 1960 the farm operated as a share farming, mixed dairy and pig operation with peanut, wheat and cotton crops also grown. Dairying ceased in the 1970’s.
When the Seiler family purchased
the property in 1979 it had been seriously over-stocked, over
plowed, and over-cleared. This treatment of the land during
those years resulted in a level of damage and loss of fertility
that is apparent even today. When visiting Logboy this damage is
still apparent in the vast cleared hillside pastures and erosion
points that are still being slowly being fixed.
When Wil and Megan took over from Wil’s parents, they lowered stocking rates and rotational grazing practices were implemented for natural regeneration of pasture and trees, this happened despite years of drought throughout the 1990's. Wil & Megan added to this a tree planting program in particularly promising areas, allowing for biodiversity in flora and fauna. In recent years we have changed our management further with time-controlled grazing, and some earthworks that have resulted in a remarkable increase in natural fauna, especially birds, frogs, insects and marsupials.
Bottle Tree Hill Organics were one of the pioneers of free-range pigs in Queensland. For ten years their free-range, organic, pasture fed pork was the main industry at Logboy, marketing to the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Gold Coast regions.
Due to drought and major business setbacks alongside the growing scarcity and price of grain; the pork operation was scaled back in 2007. We sold our pork to a local market with the occasional delivery to the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane region until 2018. Since the 2019 drought, we scaled down even further to just two sows and a boar; enough for our own use and selling our hardy Saddleback breeding stock to others who are willing to go into the free-range pork industry; where we cheer them on from afar, giving our advice and experience wherever we can.
For several years Bottle Tree Hill Organics had a three-acre permaculture market garden, that was mulched, and irrigated by a t-tape system, and supplied produce to an organic shop in Brisbane, as well as local markets. Since the 2010-2011 and 2013 floods this was nearly destroyed due to overgrowing and a lack of maintenance. After some failed attempts to restore it as it was; it returned to a pasture system feeding cattle until 2018 when we designed a new permacultural plan with a more flood and drought proof design, with ease of maintenance in mind. In the next few years this will be back to peak production as we work on realising this new plan. We also continue to add some fruit crops to this system under Permacultural stacking. We already have a more impressive, and well functioning, healthy, system than we ever had under the old design.
The farm also has a grove of 150 olive trees, which usually produce a crop every second year. Some of the olives are contract pressed by a local press to produce extra virgin olive oil. Wil and Megan were a part of a local olive producers cooperative for several years, managing and operating a traditional style olive press and producing the oil marketed under the label of “26 degrees South – The Latitude of Excellence”. This experience gave them an appreciation of the qualities of good olive oil which they now take to their own, under the Bottle Tree Hill Organics label.
The vast majority of the land use at Logboy is Beef based. Originally, this was in the management style of traditional pastoral beef that most others in the district follow. Since Megan and Wil have been at Logboy they have brought stocking rates down and introduced rotational grazing, causing a resurgence of natural ecosystems. However, since 2013, the management style of beef has taken a more hands on approach with a Savory institute style time-controlled grazing. This has caused a huge boost in productivity and sustainability. Beef has become an industry of great interest to us, and while we don’t sell beef to customers, we use it continually to improve the fertility and health of the land.
When Wil and Megan took over from Wil’s parents, they lowered stocking rates and rotational grazing practices were implemented for natural regeneration of pasture and trees, this happened despite years of drought throughout the 1990's. Wil & Megan added to this a tree planting program in particularly promising areas, allowing for biodiversity in flora and fauna. In recent years we have changed our management further with time-controlled grazing, and some earthworks that have resulted in a remarkable increase in natural fauna, especially birds, frogs, insects and marsupials.
Pork
Bottle Tree Hill Organics were one of the pioneers of free-range pigs in Queensland. For ten years their free-range, organic, pasture fed pork was the main industry at Logboy, marketing to the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Gold Coast regions.
Due to drought and major business setbacks alongside the growing scarcity and price of grain; the pork operation was scaled back in 2007. We sold our pork to a local market with the occasional delivery to the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane region until 2018. Since the 2019 drought, we scaled down even further to just two sows and a boar; enough for our own use and selling our hardy Saddleback breeding stock to others who are willing to go into the free-range pork industry; where we cheer them on from afar, giving our advice and experience wherever we can.
Vegetables and Fruit
For several years Bottle Tree Hill Organics had a three-acre permaculture market garden, that was mulched, and irrigated by a t-tape system, and supplied produce to an organic shop in Brisbane, as well as local markets. Since the 2010-2011 and 2013 floods this was nearly destroyed due to overgrowing and a lack of maintenance. After some failed attempts to restore it as it was; it returned to a pasture system feeding cattle until 2018 when we designed a new permacultural plan with a more flood and drought proof design, with ease of maintenance in mind. In the next few years this will be back to peak production as we work on realising this new plan. We also continue to add some fruit crops to this system under Permacultural stacking. We already have a more impressive, and well functioning, healthy, system than we ever had under the old design.
The farm also has a grove of 150 olive trees, which usually produce a crop every second year. Some of the olives are contract pressed by a local press to produce extra virgin olive oil. Wil and Megan were a part of a local olive producers cooperative for several years, managing and operating a traditional style olive press and producing the oil marketed under the label of “26 degrees South – The Latitude of Excellence”. This experience gave them an appreciation of the qualities of good olive oil which they now take to their own, under the Bottle Tree Hill Organics label.
Beef
The vast majority of the land use at Logboy is Beef based. Originally, this was in the management style of traditional pastoral beef that most others in the district follow. Since Megan and Wil have been at Logboy they have brought stocking rates down and introduced rotational grazing, causing a resurgence of natural ecosystems. However, since 2013, the management style of beef has taken a more hands on approach with a Savory institute style time-controlled grazing. This has caused a huge boost in productivity and sustainability. Beef has become an industry of great interest to us, and while we don’t sell beef to customers, we use it continually to improve the fertility and health of the land.
For more up to date and more
detailed insights into our farm please visit our blog.