Generational love of farming for Benambra's Lorraine, Ricky and Georgie Gilmore

"I found most of the agents didn't want to know a woman," she said.

"To get someone to actually listen to you was hard."

Ms Gilmore was born and raised in the high country town, but left the area for school and eventually to study nursing, but travelled back regularly from Bairnsdale during her study to help with sheep and cattle work.

"People are more accepting of women now and everything is changing, it's no longer a man's world, thankfully," she said.

The Gilmores will feature in the first Mountain Calf Sale of 2024 with 60 mixed-sex Angus, Hereford and Angus/Murray Grey-cross calves in the Nutrien East Gippsland Livestock sale.

Ms Gilmore's mother's family, the Matthews, moved to Benambra in the 1880s from Geelong and have owned The Forest, a 200-hectare beef grazing property, since that time.

It means Ms Gilmore's granddaughter, Georgie Gilmore, will be a sixth-generation farmer should she choose to return home after completing her PhD in microbiology.

"I reckon I will do something very similar to what Dad did," Georgie, 23, said.

"He went off, had his own career, and I think you always come home in the end... and eventually, that's what I want to do."

Georgie spent most of her childhood years in Horsham, but regularly returned to Benambra to visit her grandmother on the farm.

"I feel like Benambra has been a big part of my life," she said.

Her decision to pursue a career in microbiology was partially due to her grandmother's influence, with an aim to use the skills in areas of agriculture which could include antibiotics and vaccines for animals.

"Men are more tolerant of women in agriculture now because of female farmers like Nan, because she put in the hard yards and got the recognition," she said.

"She taught Dad that women can do this, and he's raised me in a way that I can do this too."

Georgie's father, Ricky Gilmore, now runs the farm alongside Ms Gilmore.

He returned to Benambra after two decades away from the family property in 2018.

"When I was 19, I got a start at the copper and zinc mine out here at Benambra and did four or five years there," he said.

"I moved to Western Australia and married and had kids... basically I was gone 25 years and returned five years ago to take on the farm full-time."

Ms Gilmore admits she welcomed her son back with open arms.

"Ricky came home just at the right time to take over... it was starting to stress me out," she said.

Mr Gilmore said the pastures had benefited from above-average rainfall in the last six months, with many paddocks only just starting to dry out.

"We have paddocks full of feed and not enough cattle to eat it down," he said.

"They're struggling to stay on top of the grass."

Ms Gilmore said her experience in agriculture had vastly changed from when she started in the industry, noting her stock agent, Graeme Fullgrabe, Nutrien EGL, was the first agent she could confide in.

"Graeme has always accepted me," she said.

Mr Fullgrabe said he had worked with the Gilmore family for more than 50 years, alongside other families like the Pendergasts and the Dyers.

"Lorraine had to bring the kids up, she took over from her father, and she has just rolled with the prices and the seasons, whether they be up or down," he said.

"It means a lot when you have the support of some very-loyal clients, and like these people, I too have experienced the peaks and falls of cattle prices and tough times, but nonetheless, it's been very rewarding."

The Hinnomunjie weaner sale will feature 1000-1100 vendor-bred cattle from the Omeo, Benambra and Hinnomunjie districts.

It will take place before the four Elders sales at Omeo, Benambra and Ensay.

"Like other years, we will start on about six pens of steers that are 12-months-old, and the same in the heifer sale, before we turn to our genuine weaner calves," Mr Fullgrabe said.