With a unique heritage and skill set, the Cain family has established a value-added oats business targeted to modern needs.

Five generations of the Cain family have produced crops on their 800-hectare property situated in the 500-millimetre rainfall region of Natte Yallock in the foothills of the Victorian Pyrenees, about 100 kilometres north-west of Ballarat.

“Our forefathers first planted onions, wheat and oats in 1861, dug by spade and planted by hand to feed the growing goldfields population,” says Peter Cain, who – together with his sister Alicia, brother Matt, and their parents and partners – are involved in the business.

Their value-added business is called Dad’s Oats.

“It is a tribute to family farming, to our dad and mum – Maurice and Ruth – and to the generations who have tirelessly worked the land before us,” Alicia says.

Applying a unique skill set

The Cain siblings are an entrepreneurial and educated team, having all studied at the University of Melbourne. Matt studied agricultural science and has been a practising agronomist for more than 16 years. He now runs the farming operations with his wife Kate, including growing the oats used for Dad’s Oats.

Pete studied commerce and agricultural science and has worked in private equity, technology companies and now runs a few businesses – including Farmtell, which provides weather, water and security products to the agricultural industry – and a small farm near Ballarat.

Alicia studied commerce and property and construction and is a qualified commercial property valuer.

“My brother Pete and I started Dad’s Oats as a part-time business around seven years ago.Dad had been growing high-quality oats for many years and, with Matt now taking the helm, we were excited about the opportunity to work together to build a business connected to the farm that had potential for growth and was fun,” Alicia says.

The oats had always been sold as a bulk commodity, and yet we knew they were good quality and felt that if we could take a small batch direct to the customer, these quality traits would be appreciated and we could get better returns. I love having a product to market that I know is high-quality, locally grown and healthy, as these are all really important values to me.

Know your market

Alicia and Pete gauged the market signals directly by attending farmers’ markets in Melbourne with their Dad’s Oats products.

“This was an excellent way to have one-on-one interactions with our customers and gather feedback on what they thought of the product, the common questions they had and what they were looking for. On the back of this, we launched our Steel-Cut Oats, given so many people were requesting them,” Alicia says.

“From the markets as a starting point, we then expanded through a number of small gourmet and speciality produce stores and now also sell through our online store.”

Dad’s Oats’ customer mix is predominantly health-conscious people who value high-quality products with known provenance.

Many of our customers like to consider themselves as oat connoisseurs and they appreciate Dad’s Oats’ taste and texture compared to general supermarket oats. Our subscription product has been quite successful as people love the convenience of having the oats delivered regularly to their door.

To meet the needs of growing numbers of health-conscious consumers, the Cains now grow Kowari oats, which have high beta-glucan levels proven to reduce cholesterol levels, as well as demonstrated robust agronomic performance.

More information: www.dadsoats.com