Humans of Agriculture

An 'overnight success' is often many years in the making and that's certainly the case for the Our Cow empire.

Husband and wife duo Dave McGiveron and Bianca Tarrant scraped together a deposit to buy a small cattle property in 2019 and fulfill their dream of being 'mad weaner producers'.

With just one steer to their name, they launched a direct-to-consumer meat business which soon exploded into a meat subscription powerhouse turning over more than $40 million a year. 

But it hasn't been without sacrifice, failure and some hair-raising stories of tackling challenges head-on. 

Hear what it takes to build Our Cow with two people determined to tighten the connection between consumers and the producers of their food. 

takeaways
  • Transitioning from mining to farming requires significant lifestyle changes and sacrifice 
  • Drought taught valuable lessons about resilience and mindset
  • Business coaching helped shift their perspective from victim to controller
  • Innovating during crises can lead to new business opportunities
  • The subscription meat model provided stability and growth
  • Crowdfunding engaged the community and provided necessary capital to scale up operations

chapters

00:00 Introduction and Exploring the Dynamics of a Husband and Wife Partnership in Farming
08:56 The Journey to Owning a Farm
14:22 Facing Challenges: Drought and Mental Resilience
17:15 Innovating Through Crisis: The Birth of a New Business Model
27:49 Navigating Growth: Challenges and Opportunities
30:29 COVID-19: A Catalyst for Change
36:54 The Subscription Model: A Lifeline for Survival
42:00 Crowdfunding: Engaging the Community

Check out the meat subscriptions on offer at Our Cow - we think anyone directly supporting Aussie farmers deserves a plug!

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Creators and Guests

OL
Host
Oli Le Lievre

What is Humans of Agriculture?

We're going behind the scenes to see and understand modern agriculture, because no matter whether you're in it or not, you probably don't know all the pieces to just how incredible, diverse and multi-layered agriculture is. We do this by uncovering the real stories, experiences and voices of modern agriculture.