9Dorf Farms

Meet Bronwyn Neuendorf, the dedicated farmer and chicken whisperer from 9Dorf Farms.  Since 1918, the Neuendorf family has been farming and evolving their practices, ensuring a sustainable and healthy livelihood for future generations. Their passion for providing good, nourishing food to the community shines through in the exceptional quality of their pasture-raised chooks and eggs. Get the inside scoop from our egg-citing chat with them below…

How did you get into farming?

It's in our blood. I often refer to it as being an addiction. Something like gamblers! We have been farming here since 1918 and now our grandchildren are 5th generation farmers in this area. We started off as dairy farmers, then moved into cropping and as we have gone along realised that we needed to do something different if we were going to encourage future generations onto the farm giving them a healthy livelihood and a healthy farm so we changed course in 2011 and the rest is history. 

What do you enjoy about your work?

It's great to be able to provide good nourishing food to families. We raised our 5 children on chemical-free, ethically-raised produce and it's nice to know we can now share our knowledge and passion with other families. We also live our work. Our home is our work and our work is our home and there is no separation between the two. It's a lifestyle that we are living.

Why did you decide to farm without chemical sprays? How important is this to you?

We realised many years ago that society was becoming sicker and we needed to get back to some basics, hence why we fed our family on chemical and spray-free produce we grew. To be able to use new technologies (aquaculture) with back to basic ways of farming has been a game changer for us in our business. 

What challenges has this created for you and how do you overcome them naturally?

It's not really a challenge as our paddocks have always been spray-free. The challenges for us are more about working 7 days a week and managing our animals and our own health and downtime. It's slowly coming together.

We’re aware that in Australia there are legal requirements to wash your chickens with a chemical solution to remove bacteria. Do you have to do this with your chooks?

Any chicken processed in Australia has to have potable water in the processing of the chicken, which is a chlorine-treated water. The scale of the amount you have to use varies. The big guys use the highest amount allowable and it bleaches the chicken. Our processor uses the smallest amount possible. You can smell the difference when you open the bags of chicken from a big place. The water treatment is the same as how city people’s water is treated to make it potable. If you have rainwater which is what we have, it has to be treated. 

What’s your favourite meal? 

Now the kids have left home we definitely eat differently than before. We do love a meal of chicken wings once a week. Farmer Dave will do the cooking on this night and either marinate the wings or add spices and cook them until he just about burns the wing tips so he can eat the tips! There are no veggies on these nights but I don't complain because at least he is cooking. Otherwise, we really love making a boneless roast rolled with stuffing. It's a dish we normally do when the family comes home.