A real passion for Angus

Her family has owned the property, called Georgetown after an old mining settlement on the site, in Malmsbury in central Victoria since 1976.

In the intervening years, it was run mostly as a hobby farm.

Ms Rush grew up and went to school in Melbourne, but couldn’t wait to get out into the country and to work with farm animals.

She did a Bachelor of Animal Science and Management at Melbourne University.

Of the elective subjects related to pets or livestock species, Ms Rush focused on livestock.

For about two years, Ms Rush applied for all manner of jobs related to agricultural animals for two years, and did various shorter-term roles.

“Then I spent more and more time on the farm, so Dad said, ‘Why don’t you farm here?’” Ms Rush said.

Her father Paul, his two brothers and one sister own the farm, which trades under the name Rush Brothers.

The main farm is 200 hectares and they lease another 68ha down the road that has slightly different land types and more vegetation belts than their holding.

She’s been working full-time on the farm for five years, and getting it to an economically sustaining commercial operation has taken a lot of work.

She’s boosted the livestock numbers so there is now more than double the number of breeders and finished cattle sold off the property.

The herd includes 120 Angus breeders.

The cows on the property before Ms Rush started working there were Barwidgee blood and she’s added various bloodlines, including with 30 2008 and 2009 drop cows she bought at Coolana’s female sale last May.

She has carefully selected Angus females at other sales including Ballarat’s female feature.

“Because I was expanding the herd, I kept numbers but now I’m looking to refine the herd, so there are some older cows that will need to go soon,” she said.

The cows are run in mobs of 30 to 40, reflecting the three times of year they calve.

At joining, one bull is put out for six to eight weeks, and she has a backup bull.

“Traditionally, we had an autumn and spring calving, but I bought some cows that calve in November to December, and instead of missing a year I’ve continued them calving down in early summer because it also suits the existing infrastructure, such as the yards, to have smaller mobs.”

There’s another about 120 head of bulls and young stock, and having the peak of 240-250 head at this time of year is difficult given the very dry conditions.

“I worked out that by August, we’d got 50 per cent of our average annual rainfall and by the end of the year it had only increased to 62pc; and the summer storms have seen rain all around us, not essentially missed our farm.

“I can’t remember one week last year that I didn’t feed stock or pump water. And we had a significantly shorter growing season – so we cut hay in October instead of around Christmas.”

She chooses bulls that complement her cows and help her aim of moderately framed cattle that have strong growth and carcase traits. A good temperament is also vital because she’s often doing cattle work by herself.

“I aim to finish stock and sell them straight to the abattoir at 12 months of age.”

They’re now mostly sold to Coles at Hardwicks Meatworks, Kyneton, and depending on the end market are 210-270kg carcase weight, with 4-16mm fat.

She said she stuck with Angus because of their marketability and the fact they continue to surpass her expectations including of fertility and growth rates.

Another big change she’s implemented is calves are now yard weaned – they spend one week in the yards and are weighed, drenched and handled.

The calves are let out into larger areas over two weeks.

Typically weaners get a small pellet ration (about 10pc of their diet) to promote weight gain.

“I get 1.5 to 2kg gains instead of losses at weaning and I think it sets hem up to be able to be finished at 12 months.”

This season, Ms Rush brought in straw because she only got about one-third of the normal hay production.

“I was able to hold onto all the stock by intensifying the operation, for example the heifers are running with cows and I’ve shortened the grazing rotations.”

She uses rotational and strip grazing, and part of the farm redevelopment will be making smaller paddocks to make grazing management less labour intensive.

She is also working to improve the fertiliser program and pastures.

Ms Rush was awarded a Woolworths Agricultural Scholarship last year through which she travelled to the supermarket chain’s headquarters in Sydney for two weeks and met with some “really great producers”.

The program emphasised to her the importance of not only a primary producer’s return on investment, but also a return on effort.

And although her passion for farming is evident, she said the industry had to do better job to re-engage consumers with food production.​