The Back Story – Where Gully Road’s Raw Dog Food Comes From - Gully Road

Gully Road isn’t just about delivering the most delicious stinkin’ treatos possible. For us, it’s just as important to ensure that each of our products are created as ethically as possible too. We love and care for all animals, so sourcing beef from Australia’s highest-welfare meat company made a lot of sense. Provenir is the country’s only commercially licensed mobile abattoir, producing ethically grown and processed paddock to plate (or dog bowl) meat. Like Gully Road, their philosophy is about honouring the whole animal and ensuring that nothing is wasted. And that’s where Gully Road’s weird and wonderful treatos come in! Provenir’s values of highest-welfare meat are shared by Gully Road too as we continually aim to provide the most ethical, sustainable and natural solutions for dog enrichment.

So what’s the big deal with being a mobile on farm butcher?

In Australia, 99.9% of beef (or perhaps even greater, if you move into smaller decimals) is processed at a fixed abattoir. Abattoirs are stressful, foreign environments that can require animals to be transported over great distances to reach the final destination – often via saleyards and feedlots, which are all equally as stressful. Provenir’s founders knew that this system was about human convenience, not animal welfare, so they set out on a mission to create a better solution. After many years of challenging legislation within an industry resistant to change, they finally became the Southern Hemisphere’s first (and still Australia’s only) commercially licensed mobile meat processor.

Processing on farm means that animals can spend their whole lives in their familiar environments and within their familiar herd groups. From the first day to the last these animals are happy and healthy, unlike those that end up in the feedlots, saleyards and abattoirs of the mainstream industrial meat industry. This also means that both small and larger farms are able to sell on-farm processed meat directly to the public and similarly consumers are able to buy meat from the farmer. Taking the abattoir to the farm means that meat can be processed on-farm in a way that is viable for the farmer, without the enormous costs of maintaining an on-farm butchery.

More reasons why Provenir is the best raw dog food for your pooch . . .

Provenir partners with farmers across Victoria and Southern NSW, with each of these farmers choosing on-farm processing by Provenir over the traditional process of sending cattle to the saleyard. Provenir partner farmers make this choice because they value animal welfare and feel that their values align. This sharing of ideals include farming practice, too – all Provenir beef is free range, hormone-free, grass-fed and grass-finished. While these statements might not seem significant, they are – and we’ve outlined what each of these means below.

Being free range means that animals are allowed to roam and graze pastures as nature intended, with space to move and fresh grass to eat. Just as important is what these animals do NOT do – most beef in Australia is finished in a feedlot, which means being kept in small pens to restrict movement and fed unnatural high-calorie diets in order to fatten them as quickly as possible. These places are not pretty, nor is the use of antibiotics to deal with the illness that often occurs from being fed high grain diets.

Being grass-fed on natural pastures is important for similar reasons to those listed above, although it has some additional perks too (and makes the best raw dog food for these reasons). Grass-finished beef has a very different fat constitution to grain-fed beef – grass-fed beef is lower in overall fat content (approximate 65% less than grain-fed counterparts), but is proportionately higher in healthy fats, including many that are known to prevent cancer referred to as Omega 3s, Omega 6s and CLAs.

Grass fed beef for dogs is;

Approximately 65% lower in total fat
Lower in trans fats
Higher in fat-soluble vitamins
Three to five times higher in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) – a well known anti-cancer fat with anti-inflammatory properties
Higher in vaccenic acid (which converts to CLA)
Higher in beta-carotene, a potent antioxidant which has anti-cancer properties
Four times higher in vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol), which is essential for good for cardiovascular health and is also an anti-cancer vitamin
About five times higher in total omega-3 fatty acids which are good for the cardiovascular system, anti-cancer and improving mood
A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids – good for cardiovascular health, anti-cancer, better mood and reduced potential for obesity
Lower in the specific types of saturated fats (palmitic acid and myristic acid) that are linked with heart disease
Contains about four times more anti-cancer selenium, which may also improve mood

Another part of the yucky industrial feedlot system is the use of growth hormones to speed up the maturation and fattening process of the cattle. Provenir cows are free from growth promotants and are left to mature the natural way. In the spirit of all things natural and healthy it’s not just the animals that benefit from this ethical meat production model, it’s the farmers too. Considerable peace of mind comes with having control over the wellbeing of your animals from their first day to the last.

How did Provenir & Gully Road meat (pardon the pun)?

A partnership was created with Gully Road as part of a zero waste approach to meat processing. Natural dog treats were the perfect avenue for utilising some of the beef cuts that are less sought after for human consumption. The two business’ ideals aligned perfectly, as did their requirements – Provenir was looking for a home for some of their beef cuts and Gully Road was looking for high-quality, ethically produced meat to make delicious treatos (and to offer in their raw dog food delivery service too). When the founders of Gully Road ran into some problems with their PrimeSafe accreditation, Bach’s hoo-dad Chris (also one of the founders of Provenir and an all round animal loving good guy) took over the business and moved Gully Road HQ to his Western Victorian farm. This farm – Bach’s stomping ground – is where your orders are dehydrated, packed and shipped from today.

Raw Dog Food

While Provenir has been supplying all of the bits for us to dehydrate as dried beef dog treats for some time, this meat is also now available as raw dog food too. This is the same meat chosen by many top chefs around the country and is – as we like to call it – human food for dogs. So why is human grade beef being used in raw dog food meat? Great question! Premium beef cuts (the most sought after bits of the cow) make up less than 7.5% of the total carcase, so that means that there is a lot of extra meat to go around! While Provenir sell a whole range of well-known cuts to restaurants and over at their own website, some of this meat makes it into our raw dog food delivery service too.

We offer four raw dog food menu options;

Diced muscle meat – premium diced meat for dogs that’s su-paw healthy and delicious

Minced muscle meat – for the doggo (or cat!) that enjoys the finer things in life

Prey model raw – a combination of beef muscle meat, beef liver and secreting organs, all packed with nutrients. If you’re new to the prey model raw diet, learn more about it at our previous article <link>.

Grass-fed beef bones – perfect for endless hours of chewing enjoyment and great for canine dental health

Gully Road’s Dehydrated Beef Dog Treats

Along with the PMR diet raw dog food pack (which includes su-paw nutritious and delicious beef offal and organs), Gully Road’s weird and wonderful dried beef dog treats account for some of the lesser utilised parts of the cow too. Luckily, these parts often make the most delicious chewy treatos and are packed with nutrients and healthy fats,

This range includes;