I farm: “About 400 acres with my brother and father, with 50 acres being set aside for commercial grass production. My father has the home farm and my brother and I both have outlying farms. I have about 80 acres in my outlying farm.”

Career change: “Eight years ago my father was in an accident and I decided to make the jump and farm full-time. Before that, I was working as an architect. I worked on a few farms when travelling around Australia but starting out as a tillage farmer was still very daunting and there was a lot to learn.”

Tillage: “About 350 acres of tillage crops were sown this year. Our crops are mostly spring barley, winter wheat, spring wheat and winter oats. We have facilities for drying and storing our grain and we would predominantly sell farm to farm, mainly to pig and beef farmers. We bale our own straw but giving the late harvest this year we plan to chop a lot of the straw.”

Harvesting: “The winter barley and oats have been harvested and saved. We are nearly finished harvesting the spring barley and oats – we have about 20 acres still to cut. With the awful weather and the poor barley prices, it’s very hard to make something out of the farm. We are making no return, and with the low prices for the last three years we are strongly considering growing cover crops instead of barley next year.”

Horses: “I have a huge interest in horses and I have three hunters. There is a lot of work involved in keeping them in good condition but I enjoy it and horse riding is a great pastime of mine.”

Family: “There’s myself and my husband Jeffery. My brother Paul and my father Richard (82) are also actively farming.”

Quotable quote: “Switching career was a big jump for me but I have no regrets. There is a steep learning curve involved in modern day farming but farming is in my blood and I enjoy the outdoors lifestyle.”