Joanne Connolly is no orthodox veterinarian.
With an insatiable passion for helping cattle producers improve their bottom line, she doesn't have a vet clinic, or conform to the typical nine to five.
Instead you will find her racking up the miles in her faithful 'white tilly', as she travels the countryside servicing cattle producers in the north under her fledgling new mobile veterinary business; Impact Vet.
Growing up on a small cattle property near Koumala, Jo is one of four girls, including a twin sister who she says shares very similar interests to her own.
Driven by her competitive nature, which she openly attributes to growing up with a twin, Jo's determination to forge a career in the cattle industry began when she was 10 years old.
"I always wanted to be a vet, ever since I was around 10," she said.
"I remember answering one of the questions of what you wanted to be in class and that's what I wrote down.
"It wasn't until later in high school when a teacher said to me that they thought I could do it but I'd have to work really hard that I thought to myself - oh yeah I'll give that a red hot crack."
Originally studying with the intention of becoming an equine reproduction specialist, Jo's career path would soon digress after seeing a job advertised in her final year at university with a beef cattle practice in Western Australia.
"I worked in Western Australia for four years for BOS Vet and Rural, and we covered an area from Port Hedland down to Perth," she said.
"We provided a broad range of services such as pregnancy testing, semen testing, large scale fixed-time commercial artificial insemination programs, embryo flushing and transfer, along with data recording and management."
Her experience in the west exposed her to projects across some large scale cattle operations, and provided her with insight into various data recording and management systems, and the value they provide to a grazing operation.
"The whole point was to provide more of a holistic approach for northern properties rather than us just rocking up as a vet, pregnancy testing then going onto the next property," she said.
"We had a much greater level of input into the business and honestly I found it much more rewarding."
An opportunity was soon identified to service a perceived gap in veterinary extension in the grazing industry, which is what inspired Jo to create a business of her own in Queensland.
Jo combines her vet skills with agricultural consultancy in a bid to encourage more northern producers to better utilise the data she provides.
"Data can be used to better manage an operation because you actually know what you have running around in the paddock, you know which animals will be ready to be sold, you know when peak calving will be and manage that if you're going to have a feed deficit in a dry year," she said.
"One of my favourite quotes is 'You cannot change what you don't measure', and that's why it's so important to me to actually capture the data and analyse it to see where things can be adjusted or improved.
I don't just think it's important for producers to understand how to utilise data, I think it is critical.
- Jo Connolly
"Personally I don't just think it's important for producers to understand how to utilise data, I think it is critical."
Jo has also taken on a Masters in Agribusiness externally, and was selected to be a part of Meat and Livestock Australia's Livestock consulting internship.
"Studying agribusiness has really given me another perspective when talking to producers and discussing their business with them; I'm not just trying to increase their pregnancy rates or decrease their disease levels, I've got a few more tricks I can pull out of the tool box now," she said.
"The MLA internship has allowed me to develop some more personal skills around communication along with building a fanatic network of other young consultants from all around Australia."
Having recently returned from pregnancy testing 600 head of cows on a cattle property near Charters Towers, no distance is too big or small for the young vet, happily travelling state wide if work and time permits.
"I actually like driving, gives me plenty of time to cook up some wild ideas," she said.
"Most of the other jobs I've had have been pretty local within a couple hours of Mackay, but once the breeding season kicks off I've got a few jobs booked in a bit further a field."