Our Story

Mark has farming in his veins. For all six generations that his family has been in Australia, they have been farmers, spending part or all of their lives on the land. On his mum’s side the Pillars were market gardeners and the Needhams ran cattle and sheep. On his dad’s side, the Rolfes had pigs and orchards and the Brumleys were dairy farmers. Mark’s great-great-great-grandfather established a 120 cow dairy farm around the turn of the century - not bad for a time when all milking was done by hand!

His own parents started out dairying but the harsh chemical cleaners caused his dad’s health to break down and the family transitioned to less labour-intensive beef cattle. It was also the start of their journey toward chemical-free farming.

Kelly grew up on a 6-acre block near Traralgon. She helped her parents run a few head of cattle for the family freezer and daydreamed about living on a real farm but never thought it would happen. Then along came Farmer Mark…

After getting married in 2016, they renovated and moved into an old farmhouse on Mark’s parents’ farm. However, the plan to become partners in the family farm business never eventuated so when friends with a farm in the Mardan hills asked if they’d be interested in raising a batch of beef cross calves to scale up their cattle operation they jumped at the chance. That small beginning led to a successful share-farming arrangement and Brumley Beef was born.

Mark and Kelly are passionate about regenerative agriculture and producing truly healthy food. They are looking forward to the day when they have a (less steep!) farm of their own and the opportunity to add other animal species to the mix - chooks, sheep, alpacas, and - Mark’s favourite farm animal - pigs! Daughter Tori is following right along in her parents’ footsteps and loves helping to move the cows. She always insists on stopping to give Martha lots of pats. Mark and Kelly are very grateful that they get to enjoy working together as a family doing a job they love.