Jerilderie, NSW, February 2021
Hayley: I suppose we've sacrificed being close to family. We purchased our farm where we are because land prices are so much cheaper and it's the only way we could actually get into farming without being a part of the family farm.
Megan: I gave up my family farm. I made the choice and that's fine. It’s done. We’ve got a pretty good lifestyle, I can't complain. We're doing OK. We’re doing what we want to do. We're living on a farm and working on a farm, and that's what we want.
Would we sell our farm to go to be closer to family? No, because of land prices, because there it’s worth 10 times more than where we are. It wouldn't make financial sense. Another difficult thing about farming is that a lot of people get used to earning a wage. people in a structured job earn a wage every fortnight or every month or whenever it is. Whereas in farming, you earn lump sums when you sell a lot of cattle and you've got to really budget your year out. We take six figure gambles all the time. That's bloody scary. It can be a bit stressful!