From the time he could walk, Matt Lee trailed after his grandfather as he worked with cattle. And after years of watching him work, today Mr Lee is putting his own stamp on the property that has been in the Lee family for more than a century. But to this day, he still has plenty of help from his grandfather.
Mr Lee and his wife Jessica, Leebrooke, run an Angus herd on 325 hectares of leased and their own land near Stratford after carrying it on after his grandparents Brendan and Margaret Lee.
His grandfather used to run Herefords, but after switching to Angus, Mr Lee is taking the herd to a whole new level.
"There are more selling options with Angus," he said.
Animal welfare has always been a priority at Leebrooke.
"My grandpa was pretty big on animal welfare, and every school holidays I would be here helping them. For me, farming is where I find happiness, because that's what you did as a kid and it's like returning to a place you belong," he said.
The Lee family has joined the Greenham's Never Ever Beef Program, which ensures animals have been humanely handled, no use of antibiotics and no grain feeding. "But it means at the other end there is a premium," he said. Mr Lee is working hard to improve his herd, which he hopes will reach 200 breeders next year. But his cows must fit the bill.
"They need good structure and good feet with a straight topline, but I like a bit of depth as well. We started farming in a drought, but I've found anything with good rib fat hangs on that little bit longer when it starts to get tough."
But none of this is guesswork - Mr Lee has a method for selecting the right cattle.
"I tag every calf at birth. Then at weaning I weigh everything, and check structure. I go back and look at their data. I'll check their mother's age, and that she is a good milker and has good structure. I also check that she had gotten in calf during the first cycle. And through that I will select the best 20 heifers that fit that criteria.
"I figure if I do it for five or so years, I should have my best breeders that are structurally sound and fertile, so I won't have to do it forever. By putting a tag in their ear and recording their birth date, you can identify their mother and who their sire is, because I put out one bull at a time. As my numbers grow, the next step will be using the HeiferSELECT program run by Angus Australia".
It was actually Mrs Lee who got him thinking this way - she runs their Leebrooke Australian White sheep stud. They run about 100 stud ewes, with a Tattykeel and Gamadale genetics.
It was seeing Mrs Lee's techniques within the stud that gave Mr Lee the idea to start tagging his calves.
"You can put your cattle all in a pen with no tags and choose the biggest ones, but I've found some of the best looking breeding cattle have bad fertility," he said. "You want every breeder to get in calf in the first or second cycle, so you're breeding better fertility.
"The thing with data tracking is you can't manage what you don't measure. You can have a calf that's say 30 kilograms, and then when you go to wean it 280 days later you can see what weight gain it has had."
When it comes to selecting sires, Mr Lee has his eye on milk. Both his grandfathers were cattle farmers and the one thing they agreed on was the milk factor - without the milk, growth means nothing.
"I want good structure, but I really want to see good milk in his breeding. You can get a good steer with carcase merit and growth, but at the same time, you want a heifer to be a good future breeder," he said. "We also look at feet, maternal strength, fertility, growth and structure. We've got a young family, so we focus on temperament."
He looks at a type when choosing bulls, not a stud, and has bought bulls from Alpine, Pinora, Mawarra and Kunuma Angus studs.
"My grandfather bought a lot of Kunuma bulls over the years. He gave me all the bull information from the past 20 years, and every cow he had freeze branded. So I could work out their age, and which bull they were by.
"I worked out that a lot of good cows that were still on the property which are pushing 10 years old were Kunuma bloodlines. So I figured I should keep buying bulls from there."
He said he had a great relationship with Kunuma's Mitch Lynch. "He is really honest with us," he said.
Before joining, Mr Lee brings the cows in for a drench, a Multimin, and depending on the season, gives the cows silage with a bit of Causmag to boost their nutrition. Cows are joined from the end of April until the middle of July. Spring joining falls from mid-October to December.
"I preg test from 18 weeks to six weeks, if I have the bulls out for 12 weeks. So through that I worked out most cows are getting in calf in the first or second cycle. It does come down to nutrition - this year I had four sets of twins."
Heifers are put through a 10-day AI program, originally using semen from the US, but he found some of these sires did not suit the direction he wanted to go.
"The benefit of the fixed time AI is you use a low birthweight bull, and they calve within three or four days of each other. You also get the benefits of elite genetics that most commercial breeders couldn't justify if you were to just buy the bull."
Calves are yard-weaned for three to five days when they are eight to 10 months old depending on how they settle.
"My grandpa Brendan was always big on temperament and showed the importance of spending time with the herd. So now when I feed out silage or drive through to check on the cows, I walk through them at an early age, so they wean pretty well because they are used to people."
He picks out the best heifers to keep, then separates steers from surplus heifers.
"The heifers that are tagged for export are kept ticking along, while the retained heifers and steers will go onto a millet crop this year."
Steers are aimed to reach 350 to 400kg before being sold at Leongatha.
Mr Lee plans to reach up to 300 breeders. "I hope in the future every heifer that hits the ground will fit the bill as a future breeder and be sought-after," he said.
The way he is going, they certainly will be.
