THEY say resilience is one of the qualities that makes a great farmer.
And if 2020 gave 22-year-old Ellie Williams anything, it was resilience.
She recalls last year as being one of her toughest yet for a few reasons.
Although she would have loved to jump into the agriculture workforce after completing her animal science degree at Murdoch University at the end of 2020 and was offered two positions, she has had to put it all on hold.
But she hasn't let the challenges knock her positive spirit and passion for agriculture.
For Ms Williams her loved ones come first and currently her attention is focused on her beloved horse, War Fille, who is seriously ill.
In early November, her mare came down with a case of colic and had surgery at the Murdoch University Animal Hospital.
But Far Wille then contracted an infection in her wither which turned into an abscess and was diagnosed with a very rare case of fistulous withers, which is very painful.
"They call it a textbook case because no-one has seen one like this - whenever she comes in, all the vets and professors come in to have a look at her because her case is so rare," Ms Williams said.
The illness has led to countless trips to the vet and required a hole being drilled down through the wound on her neck which Ms Williams needs to flush daily.
As well as not wanting to leave Far Wille while she's ill, the daily maintenance of the wound has meant Ms Williams has been unable to leave the Perth region for any graduate job opportunities.
But prior to War Fille becoming sick, Ms Williams was dealt a few more difficult cards.
In mid-2020, a cow belonging to her dad David died.
Mr Williams was still grieving the death in 2019 of his veterinarian brother Richard, who David would have turned to for help with such a crisis, so he turned instead to his daughter.
But Ms Williams was restricted in how much support she could provide to her dad near Geraldton as strict intrastate borders were still in place due to COVID-19.
"I was trying to help just by getting him to send me photos and talking on the phone," she said.
"I couldn't be there to help my dad at that point and he was worried he was going to lose all of his cattle.
"I can't be 100 per cent sure because I'm not a vet but I think they had bloat and he ended up losing two cows, which was quite expensive for him and the fact he had cropping to do and the family wasn't doing well because of Richard's death, I would have liked to have just been there for my dad during that time to help take some of the load off his hands."
All this was happening while Ms Williams was in her final and most challenging year of university, while navigating studying during a pandemic.
"But I guess it was good to have that experience because stressful things like that will probably happen in the future, so I think it prepared me for other challenges that could come up," she said.
Ms Williams grew up on a mixed cattle, sheep and cropping farm near Walkaway of about 4000 hectares.
During her last years of high school she moved to Geraldton and her dad relocated to a smaller property where he still farms cattle and sheep and also does contract cropping.
Her love for cattle is just as strong as for horses and it's the particular area of agriculture that draws her interest.
"I have always been interested in cattle," she said.
"I remember when we got our first lot of cows that came in the back of a trailer - I was quite young, about nine or 10.
"There were only 12 heifers but it was so exciting.
"We got to name them all and dad said we could only name them meat-related names, so we had Knife, Fork, Freezer and Pepper.
"Ever since then, we have always had cattle."
Ms Williams loved the elements of her degree that focused on cattle and her love for the animal intensified more as she learnt more.
"I like the temperament of cattle and I like working with larger animals," she said.
"I respect them because they could kill me at any moment, but the ones that I grew up with especially, were pretty tame - we could pat the bulls and walk them around but they were powerful animals nonetheless.
"They might not be very happy with you putting a tag in their ear but at the end of the day, they will still come back to say hi."
Favourite memories of her time at university centre around working with cattle.
In mid-2019 Ms Williams did a practical placement at Liveringa station, near Derby, for 20 days.
It was one of her first experiences on a station and certainly the largest scale she had seen.
"It was so great to see cattle from a different side, because I had only seen smaller livestock operations, so it was very eye opening," Ms Williams said.
"The cattle had so much respect for people even though they weren't as tame as the cattle I had grown up around.
"Stations handle a lot larger cattle and of different sizes, they might be taking littler calves off and putting them in a weaner pen and bottle feeding some and they'll do that on a massive scale.
"Liveringa did it in two lots of roundups of all the paddocks, so they did the whole herd twice."
The station had about 25,000 breeders and about 200 bulls when she was there - a few more than the operation she grew up with, which at most had 147 breeders.
Another highlight during her study was taking the university's steers to the Perth Royal Show, which was "a great experience".
With the dream of one day managing her own cattle herd, preferably Black Angus, Ms Williams said she is fascinated with the genetics field of beef production, especially the potential outcomes of crossbreeding.
"I love learning about different breeds," she said.
"For example, a Brahman doesn't have much marbling, whereas a Black Angus has more, but a Wagyu has even more, so there's the possibility of getting more marbling in Brahmans if they are crossed.
"And I just love eating steak, particularly our own because you can taste the difference based on what they have been fed and how they've been treated."
The red meat industry, like all areas of agriculture, is no stranger to public criticism.
Ms Williams is part of the next generation who will be responsible for conveying the industry's message to consumers and the wider community.
She believes criticism of the sector is two fold; firstly, that there are people in the industry who are doing the wrong thing and need to change or improve in regards to sustainability, and secondly, that a lot of backlash towards the red meat industry comes from people with a lack of understanding.
According to Ms Williams, these two issues closely relate to one another as people outside the industry only remember the irresponsible people which then taints the whole industry.
"The public doesn't notice the producers who have reticulated grass, who handfeed their cattle and whose cattle are beautiful, healthy, happy and fat," she said.
"And some animal husbandry might look confronting to people because it does hurt the animal a little but things done without pain relief such as ear tagging are not very painful for the animals - putting an ear tag on a sheep or cow is no different to humans getting their ears pierced."
Contributing to beef production becoming more environmentally sustainable is a legacy Ms Williams hopes to have on agriculture.
She anticipates water availability to be the biggest issue for the beef sector going forward and she hopes that current and future producers understand just how vital water is and that it should not, and cannot, be wasted.