A MOTHER-DAUGHTER abattoir act is turning heads in the Far North - as much for its organic meat products as the operators` gender.  

Tully`s Kristine and Kerry Jonsson were graziers on the family`s Jervoise cattle station at Greenvale near Mt Garnet, west of Cairns, before they decided to start up a slaughtering, processing and packaging side of the business.

They now run the Far North`s only certified organic abattoir, selling a range of organic meats and recently combining forces with the Tableland`s Mungalli Creek dairy for distributing purposes.

Kristine Jonsson said the niche market was steadily growing.

"Most abattoirs licensed to process organic meat are located much further south and that was restrictive for organic producers like ourselves so we decided to take the supply chain into our own hands - and ensure other organic cattle producers would have somewhere to go to," Ms Jonsson said.

The family stopped using dips and sprays in the late 1970s and its properties are now subject to random audits, annual soil testing and regular kidney fat sampling.

Organic meat products from Jervoise Organic Meats will be seen down south this year for the first time.

"They`ll now be in the same outlets that sell Mungalli Creek Dairy products, and distributed nationally by hundreds of retailers and stockists," Ms Jonsson said.

"Ultimately we`d like to supply around 20 head of prime certified cattle a week to markets down south, 50 weeks a year, while still servicing the Cairns and Townsville regions."

The pair produces nine different flavours of gluten and preservative-free sausages and everything from steak, corned beef and roasts to suet.

Ms Jonsson said the hurdles had been high. There are no dips, sprays, hormonal growth promotants or chemicals used on the family`s Tully and Tableland properties.

"It was a struggle at first because we went cold turkey on dips and sprays, and we had fatalities back in the late 1970s but ticks and flies were there long before chemicals and they can be managed through building up immunity through culling and selling, through colonies of dung beetles and things like that," she said.

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