Self-starter builds cattle herd with RIC loan

The entrepreneurial spirit is strong in Danna Boulton’s family so entering the agricultural industry as a sole-trading farm producer is a natural step.

Danna has established a beef cattle business with the help of a RIC AgriStarter Loan after growing up on her parents’ farm in Victoria’s Gippsland region.

She witnessed their business nous from an early age when poor sheep prices prompted them to switch to dairy production.

“So they hand-built the dairy, they poured every piece of concrete, they built the shed with help from our family because the money wasn’t there,” Danna said.

“I remember we helped mix the concrete, bucketing the water into the concrete mixer and pouring it all by hand – I was only 6 at the time, so I was on sandwich duty.”

She and her 3 siblings helped her parents on the farm, which included raising bobby calves using milk from the dairy.

“Inadvertently, you learn a whole heap of skills,” she said.

“Mum and Dad would put ear tags on some of the cows with our names on them and when they were sold, that would go into our bank account to go towards a car or uni or whatever.”

Danna studied teaching at university and worked as a teacher for 4 years, but she longed to be on-farm.

“My heart was not in it,” she said.

She spent time working for other farmers, experiencing different business models, as well as at a local feed store.

“It just all sort of tied in together – you learn what drenches to use, and it gives you the confidence that you know what you’re doing a bit more,” she said.

She also used the time to purchase and renovate a house, selling it at a profit to give her a deposit for a farm property, which came up for sale a few minutes’ drive from her parents’ farm.

She found out about RIC through her bank manager and with the help of the Rural Financial Counselling Service, she applied for a RIC AgriStarter Loan in January 2023 as a first farmer, using a business plan to support her application.

Her business model involved raising bobby calves to bullocks, then selling them to start generating an income, building on genetics as the business grew.

“You can have them thriving without that much cost and we’ve been doing it since we were 3 or 4 years old,” she said.

She was also able to provide 3 years’ cattle trading financial statements.

“The rural financial counsellor took me under her wing and broke the application down step by step, and I went through and ticked it off,” she said.

“If I had any troubles, she’d go through it all.”

The AgriStarter Loan allows farmers to borrow up to half their total debt from RIC – Danna used her loan to buy 93 hectares of grazing land, with RIC funding half the purchase and her commercial bank lending her the remainder.

For Danna, the main benefits of the RIC loan were the concessional interest rate, the 5-year interest-only payment period and being able to spread her debt across 2 lenders.

“I don’t think the bank would have lent me the money to buy the property without the support of a RIC loan at the same time because they would have looked at it and thought there was no way I could afford the interest on the entirety of the loan,” she said.

“By breaking it in half, they were able to say, ‘well the first 5 years are interest-only so you can get on your feet’.”

She started with 30 calves in 2023 and has already built her herd to 220 cows and said she was determined to succeed.

Danna said the biggest challenge as a sole trader in her 30s was juggling her business and being a mother to her young son, and knowing when to ask for help.

“If I fail at something, I’ve got no one else to blame but myself, but when you get those successes, it’s like, ‘wow I did that’,” she said.

“It’s a good feeling.”

Danna said she encountered gender stereotypes when she was younger.

“I struggled a bit with the stereotype of ‘you’re a girl, you can’t do that’, but now I’m confident enough in my own ability and knowledge that people do take me seriously,” she said.

“They see you loading cattle and you’re the one who’s bought them and then they see you selling cattle at the yards and, well, the proof’s in the pudding, isn’t it? They say, ‘wow are they yours? They’re in good order’.”

She said today, there was nothing holding women back in agriculture.

“With technology now, if you’re not strong enough, go get a tractor,” she said.

“If you’re not strong enough to use the ear markers, go get a better gun – I might do things a bit differently and it might take me a little longer, but I’ll still get there.”

Danna is already planning the next phase of her business and hopes to buy an additional property or build a house on her first land purchase.

“Farming is addictive – once you’ve bought the first farm, you want to buy the next one and you want to have more cattle, you get a kick out of improving and getting bigger,” she said.

“I think if you’re not pushing yourself, then you know you’re not going to get the best out of yourself and I figure I’m young and I’m capable, so now is the time where you push and hopefully when I’m older, I can enjoy it.

“It’s important we keep things like RIC loans to help young people get into business – you hear about farms getting bought by overseas companies and I’d sooner see young people getting in and making a go of it and have those profits go back into the community.”

Are you considering establishing, purchasing or developing your first farm business? 
Visit www.ric.gov.au/agristarter