Josie Cummings

Hatch Program 3

1 Nov 2022

About

Josie Cummings is based in the small town of Mutchilba, near Dimbulah in Far North Queensland. Josie, her husband and four children operate a small farm focusing mainly on primary production of goats as well as sheep and recently introduced pig components.

Josie has been producing small-scale boxed meat for the local market, as well as supplying her own family and is very interested in exploring how the “whole carcass” can be better utilised outside of meat production and how she can value-add to her existing small business. Josie is interested in tanning hides and recently completed a training course in Central Queensland. Whilst currently highly focused on raising her young family, Josie is preparing to grow her family business and her development as an entrepreneur as the children get older and more independent.

The Idea

Josie came into the program with a wide range of ideas around value adding, from tanning hides on their goat production, to artistic carved and mounted skulls to dog chews for ears, hooves and other cuts to the production of a protein-based meal from slaughter “waste”. In exploring which idea to pursue for the Hatch program, Josie decided to concentrate on protein-based meal developed from waste embracing circular economy principles and presenting a more scalable commercial opportunity.

Josie’s understanding of the livestock production industry from her boxed meat business meant that she had insight into the problems around waste disposal for regionally based meat processors and an idea that this waste could be aggregated on top of her own limited output to create an input source for the development of a protein-based meal. How this could be utilised in industry to deliver value for a customer segment is the key investigation target Josie is currently pursuing. Her initial value proposition was that this would make a good protein input for livestock feed, however, Australia has laws which prevent the inclusion of ruminant meat, offal or blood meal being fed to ruminant animals in order to prevent BSE (“Mad Cow disease”). Josie needed to look for another opportunity to leverage the circular economic use of this animal waste and relieve the impost of disposal on processors and herself. This might be in the form of a monogastric protein input or another application altogether.

“I entered the Hatch program to gain knowledge and skills and be able to apply them to other solutions. I want to be able to expand my business as my kids get older with more time available. This gives me baby steps in learning for something more scalable.”

What's next?

Key areas of focus will be on:
-Establishing where a market opportunity might lie for the use of a protein-based product to value add to the waste which would otherwise be dumped.
-Identifying customer segments and undertaking primary research to validate assumptions about the problems they might be experiencing that this protein-based product might solve.
-Creation of a portfolio of Lean canvases for the various customer segments, building on the work Josie has already completed.