north east regional extra | September 9 - 15, 2020
nemedia.com.au
1.
9 - 15 September, 2020
Happy wife, happy hens, happy life
◆ HAPPY FAMILY: Cassie, Ryan (holding newborn Hugh) and Elly Sutcliffe have embraced farm life in Jindera.
By BELINDA HARRISON FARMING often gets a negative reputation and many teenagers leave their family’s farm to pursue other work having seen the stress their parents and/or grandparents have endured year after year. From droughts to bushfires to seasons that were too hot or too cold, failed crops, animals being mistreated or falling ill,
there are so many reasons for people to leave the land. But for Cassie and Ryan Sutcliffe of The Happy Hens Eggs at Jindera, they couldn’t be happier with their choice of life on the land. “I wanted to show people the good side to agriculture and spread a bit of positivity, which is why our business is called The Happy Hens Eggs,” Cassie explained. She grew up in Howlong, her family having a beef and
dairy farming background and for as long as she can remember, was always following her Dad around on his cattle work jobs locally and when visiting family in the Laceby, Moyhu, Docker and Wangaratta areas where they had property. “I’ve always been an animal lover and after I finished school, I started a vet nursing traineeship before completing a Diploma in Vet Nursing,” Cassie said. “I also worked at the
PHOTO: Willson Mack
Corowa Piggery just for something completely different, and as an embryo technician for a cattle vet.” Similarly, Ryan grew up around the Corowa district where his grandparents had a sheep and cropping property and had connections in the grain storage industry. “My uncle gave me my first job on a grain storage site and now I manage a grain storage company and employ him,” Ryan said.
Ryan and Cassie moved to Manangatang in the Mallee district when Ryan landed a traineeship with Graincorp but they always knew they wanted to run their own farm and raise their children in a rural surrounding. “I really wanted to run beef cattle so in 2015, we returned to the North East and bought our 20 acre farm,” Cassie explained. “Ryan took on a management role in grain storage
operations at Rand and I settled into teaching veterinary nursing and animal studies at GOTAFE. “We bought and sold some cattle and ran a small group of cows and calves but it wasn’t until our daughter Eloise (Elly) was born in 2017 and I was on maternity leave that I felt like I was ‘living the dream’ - pottering around outside on the farm and feeding cattle and I was starting to dread returning to my office job.”
ANIMAL CARE
WINE TALK
YOUR HEALTH
TECH & SCIENCE
with NATASHA
with ANITA
with SOPHIE & BELINDA
with CHRIS
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1300 368 555
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*Other fees and charges will apply. View the eligibility criteria for the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme at https://nhfic.gov.au/what-we-do/fhlds/eligibility/. Standard lending criteria, fees, charges, terms and conditions apply. AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 247298. ABN 48 087 651 787.