Quail set to be exported to Hong Kong

TINY, fluffy Japanese quail emerge by the hundreds from rows of speckled eggs every week at Rannoch Quail’s hatchery at Tea Tree.

The business of more than 35 years has long supplied local and interstate restaurants with the delicate white meat, and from this month its quail will be exported to Hong Kong for the first time.

It’s one of several positive steps forward for owner Daniel Millar, who has been at the helm for around four years.

Daniel moved away from sheep and cattle farming when the opportunity arose to purchase the business from Bruce Wiggins, the second owner, who had run the operation for about 30 years at Nubeena.

Several million dollars have been invested in infrastructure at the new site, from the incubators to the growing sheds to the meat processing facility.

The branding has been updated and new markets explored with enthusiasm for both the eggs and the meat.

One of the biggest challenges has been getting back into the popular Melbourne and Sydney restaurant market after the hospitality industry shut down during the pandemic.

So far growth in this area has been slow but steady.

“We sell the eggs to local butchers and IGAs, and while they’re small compared to a chicken egg they are a great size to boil and put into salads and some chefs like to use them raw on steak as a dressing,” Daniel said.

“The quail are sold as whole birds in a pack of four, or butterflied boned, where the backbone, ribs and breastbone are removed, leaving just the drumstick and winglet.

“Quail is known for being fiddly to eat due to the small bones but this is a popular way to purchase and with each quail achieving up to 300g dressed weight, you don’t really need many to get a feed.”

Tasmania has a native quail but it’s much smaller than Japanese quail so not practical for breeding for meat production.

Eggs from the breeding stock are in the incubator for 14 days and then go into the hatchery for five days.

There are more than 1000 chicks hatching every week, and a series of customised growing sheds have the birds separated by age and size, until they reach a suitable size for processing.

From there they are grown until about six or seven weeks of age and ready for slaughter, a process that employs seven casual staff.

Rannoch Quail recently secured a State Government Enabling Small Business Grant of $10,000 which has helped with the addition of ammonia sensors in the sheds to automatically monitor for elevated levels that could prove harmful to workers.

Due to high biosecurity requirements, there are no direct sales to the public at Rannoch Quail, although the product can be found at many local butchers and retail outlets around the state.

It is also found on the menu at many well-known restaurants and at events like the recently held Koonya Garlic Festival and the upcoming Flamin’ Franko @ Franklin Square.

“It’s a bit different to chasing cattle through the bush and herding sheep, I like the way it’s neat and contained on a relatively small property,” Daniel said.

“The quail are easy to breed and manage and as long as the avian bird flu doesn’t make its way here, I can see the farm going from strength to strength.”