A Passion for Agriculture Drives Sophie Hanna’s Impact on Australian Beef Industry and Family Farm
For GenAngus alumni Sophie Hanna, her passion spawned from her farming background, which led her to pursue a career in agriculture to utilise her interests and contribute to the industry.
“I am a passionate, motivated and enthusiastic agricultural science professional who aspires to contribute to the advancement and continued prosperity of Australian agriculture, and particularly Australian beef,” said Sophie.
“My love for agriculture and rural communities stems from my family’s commercial Angus farm, where my interest and involvement continues.”
Growing up on her family property located at Walwa, Northeast Victoria, Sophie marks the sixth generation of producers in her family. Their aggregation of four properties encompasses 1,200ha of land, and is home to their commercial self-replacing Angus cow-calf operation. Her family’s connection to the area is a long one, with part of their property having been in their ownership for a storied 160 years.
The operation is approximately 950 breeders, utilising Angus genetics sourced from seedstock operations in Southern NSW and Northeast Victoria. The operation aims to produce sound, fertile, mid-framed cows that are easy to manage, calve easily, and produce productive feeder steers and replacement heifers.
Receiving approximately 800 mm annual rainfall, the shale and granite hills and river and creek flats are sown predominantly to phalaris or an annual or Italian ryegrass, with strong self-regeneration of white and sub clovers. Native pastures grow on the steepest hills and provide a source of summer feed.
Sophie, while working off farm, still contributes to the family business, “From early childhood I have passionately worked with my parents to complete operational practices on the farm and increasingly I’ve participated in strategic decisions involving refining breeding objectives, soil and pasture improvement and cattle sale opportunities,” she said.
In order to achieve their key business goals of producing fertile, functional females and productive progeny, Sophie said, “A key production driver for our herd is ensuring stock receive adequate nutrition to fulfil their genetic potential.
“Our operation revolves around ensuring our breeders are at their optimal condition for the critical stages of their reproductive cycle, to maximise conceptions, progeny performance and following conceptions.”
Joining approximately 1,100 females annually, including 250-300 heifers, the business begins joining from early October for a period of six weeks for their heifers and nine weeks for their cows.
“Joining occurs from early October to capitalise on the rising plane of nutrition in the paddocks, which allows the females to achieve optimal condition and conception rates,” said Sophie.
Dependent on the season, late January-February will typically see heifers preg-tested at 8-10 weeks pregnant, with cows preg-tested at weaning in April-May.
Calving begins from mid-July, with heifers finishing at the end of August and cows finishing mid-September.
“Calving from mid-July and nutrition management enables us to achieve our key production drivers by matching feed demand with pasture growth,” said Sophie. “The breeding operation, including joining females at 15 months of age and selling backgrounder or feeder steers, is designed to align with the conditions of our country.”
“Greatest attention to feed availability prior to joining and through pregnancy is provided to maiden heifers and second time calvers, to ensure the youngest stock achieve optimal body condition to maximise conception rates, calving ease, lactation and the following conception,” she said.
“Prior to joining, all females receive a booster 5 in 1 vaccination and internal and external parasite drenches.
“Females are rotated across the farm during pregnancy to provide adequate feed, with the heifers having a run on the hillier country in the last trimester of pregnancy to keep them fit and active.”
This focus on herd productivity and achieving the maximum output from their management practices corresponds with Sophie’s professional career, where she works with farmers and producers through extension activities to educate them on how to maximise productivity in their operations.
“My love for our farm and studying chemistry, biology and economics at school, led me to study a Bachelor of Agriculture at The University of Melbourne, majoring in Plant and Soil Science from 2019 to 2021,” she said.
“Completing my final semester at the Dookie Campus was a great practical opportunity where I also completed a Certificate Three in Agriculture.
“Appreciating the importance of ameliorating production constraints to advance on-farm productivity and sustainability, and to strengthen my research capabilities, in 2022 I completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.
My honours project investigated the influence of lime application on the mineralisation of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in acid soils.”
She continued, “In January 2023, I begun working for Riverine Plains which is an independent farming systems group that delivers research and extension activities to broadacre cropping and livestock producers in Southern NSW and Northeast Victoria.
“I manage and facilitate projects, events and trials to deliver timely and relevant information to beef, sheep and mixed farmers to advance on-farm productivity, efficiency and sustainability.”
When looking at their business, the Hanna Family identifies their primary target markets as the feeder steer or backgrounder markets, with their focus on each market dependent on the seasonal conditions.
“In average to high rainfall years, we target the feeder market, aiming to sell steers of 380-500kgs from 14 months of age,” said Sophie.
“In drier years, we may sell steers from 12 months of age to backgrounders, depending on feed availability and stock condition. Heifers that are culled prior to joining are also targeted towards backgrounders.”
Heifers retained for herd use are selected on parameters for weight, structural soundness, condition and temperament. Fertility plays a key role in keep/cull decisions, with dry females after the six-week joining removed from the breeding herd.
Any dry heifers and young cows drafted at calf marking are fattened to achieve MSA grading through Greenhams Never Ever Beef Program in late spring. Further herd accreditations include EU accreditation and the JBS Farm Assurance Program.
The Hanna Family select genetics for their herd with importance placed on structural soundness, calving ease, fertility, 400-day weight and docility.
“We review the EBVs of bulls prior to visual assessment to highlight the ones that have good values for our key traits of interest and are well rounded across all EBVs,” said Sophie.
“Phenotypic structural assessments are important for selecting bulls that are suitable for serving our females on the undulating Upper Murray country.”
They also consider milk and carcase traits such as IMF in their selection decisions.
The business takes care when integrating new bulls into their operations, exposing them to a small number of females briefly in advance of the joining period. They also monitor young bulls closely during their first joining.
When looking to the future of the business, Sophie has highlighted contingency planning, heightened efficiency and growth in the responsibilities of the whole staff, as continuous improvements they are aiming to make.
“In the future, we aim to continue strengthening the capabilities within the team, including family and employees, to enable my parents to hand over responsibilities or have a break from the farm when they want to, while ensuring key management practices are continuing to improve.
“In recent years we’ve progressed capturing the knowledge that has been written down in diaries or kept in heads, into an app that our team can access and add to.
“This database, which my brother has been developing and the team has been feeding information into, will be instrumental in improving knowledge capturing and sharing between the team, as well as enable more data driven decisions. There are lots of possibilities and exciting times ahead!”
Looking to the future of Angus, not only in their business, but Australia wide, Sophie shared her opinion on the breed and its impact, “Angus cattle are a cornerstone of the Australian beef industry, not only due to their prime genetics and the global demand, but because of the people and community who produce them.
“I see an exciting, progressive and innovative future for Angus production in Australia, as the community continues to lead collaborative efforts to address challenges and maximise genetic gains.
“As the need to produce cattle more efficiently and sustainably continues to grow, particularly to reduce producers’ emissions intensity, leading genetics has an important role to play.”
Sophie’s time at GenAngus
Sophie was looking for an opportunity to expand her skills across the board, as well as gain networking opportunities and so she applied for the 2024 GenAngus Future Leaders Program. READ MORE
– Cheyne Twist, Senior Marketing & Communications Officer
