One of the best Christmas presents which Georgie Beighton has ever received was a stud heifer from her aunt and uncle, Annie and Andrew Bell who run Red Gum Herefords as well as a large scale commercial herd.
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The gift in 2016 was the foundation female for the now 25 year old's Karmoola Hereford stud which comprises six females.
Growing up near Penola she spent a lot of time helping on the Bell's farm which piqued her interest in agriculture.
While studying a Bachelor of Animal Science and Veterinary Technology at Wagga Wagga, NSW, her love of cattle developed further.
About the same time she started helping the Galpin family from Penola show cattle from their Warrawindi Limousin stud.
She attended several Hereford Youth heifer shows including one in Qld in 2017 where she was lucky enough to win a heifer, Yagaburne Amy M197, which she took to the Royal Adelaide Show in 2019 with its first calf.
Georgie says the docility of Herefords is one of their big advantages and believes they have a strong place in the industry.
"You are starting to see a lot more black baldies and Hereford crosses through the saleyards and everything is making similar money," she said.
Georgie enjoys heading out to check her cows which are run on the Bells' Avenue Range property and wants to keep breeding a small elite herd.
She says she has been fortunate to have some incredible mentors in Andrew as well Emma Keech, Kenvel Poll Herefords and James Pearce, Yavenvale Herefords, Adelong, NSW, who all helped her to develop an eye for looking at both genotype and phenotype to select the best animals for her program.
"I have always been pretty selective with genetics looking at trying to increase intramuscular fat, growth rates and still keeping the low birth weights," she said.
"It is pretty handy that we can use some of the bulls in Andrew's commercial herd and I have been selling a few bulls into Victoria."
Georgie is excited about the future of the beef industry, especially with technological advancements such as artificial insemination, giving small breeders like herself access to leading sires from around the world.
"For small studs like myself it is much more economical to be buying six straws of semen rather than spending $15,000 on a bull and having to use that bull every year for the next five years," she said.
From 2017-2022, when she reached the age limit, Georgie was on the Hereford Youth national committee helping run their heifer shows and promote whiteface cattle to the next generation.
Her specific role was social media and publicity which gave her the idea for her new business, Cattle Grid Creative, launched in February.
Georgie- who now lives in Kingston SE- has a growing client list of stud breeders and local businesses which she is producing creative content for.
She also manages the Facebook and Instagram accounts for the Naked Farmer-a movement getting rural people to discuss mental health - and is the publicity officer for the annual Penola Rodeo.
"Social media is such a massive part of everything these days but not everyone has time to be doing it. I really want to help people keep their businesses front of mind," she said.
"If I can have a little bit of an influence in helping promote Herefords and beef cattle in general that would be ideal."
