IT's the beginning of a new chapter for Brett and Kim George as they build their cattle operation at Kudardup.
The Georges moved to the area just 18 months ago after living in Esperance for many years.
Brett is from an agricultural background with his family owning a cattle farm in Gingin, while Kim was originally from Perth.
With the family farm not being big enough to support all the brothers, Brett left to go shearing, eventually running his own shearing teams in the Great Southern before returning to farming, as it is what he loves.
To get some experience under his belt he worked for Mingenew farmer Peter Smart.
"He was always up to date with the cutting edge technology, so he was great to learn from," Brett said.
Kim started out working in banks in Perth until leaving the city and working on a farm in the Great Southern and doing the mustering season for a few years on De Grey station in the Pilbara.
During her years mustering cattle, Kim said she would collect orphaned calves and rear them before trading them for heifers to grow her own herd.
She then went and worked at Argyle Diamond mines for 11 years before moving to Esperance where she worked at BHP's Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine.
It was during this time that she met Brett who was driving road trains for BIS to the Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine.
When the mine closed he became a stevedore for Esperance Port Authority for 10 years, while Kim looked after the cattle.
During their time in Esperance Brett and Kim farmed a total of 445 hectares (1100 acres) - 202ha they owned and 243ha they leased from neighbours and on it ran a herd of 200 Murray Grey and Angus breeders.
After years of being in Esperance and with family in Perth and on the west coast, in 2019 the Georges decided it was time to move closer to them.
While searching for land Brett and Kim said it was difficult to acquire any until they saw the Kudardup property come up for sale.
With uncertainty around how much additional land they could lease, the Georges sold off all their dark Murray Greys and only took their Angus and silver Murray Grey breeders to the new property.
"I enjoy the Monterey Angus and Kim likes the Monterey Murray Greys," Brett said.
Having had the opportunity to run a cropping program in the past, the couple said they weren't interested in that side of farming, as their passion was for livestock.
In particular, they enjoy the breeding aspect.
"We like to see what we can grow and develop," Brett said.
They currently run 130 breeders and the plan is to grow out the calves they breed and bring in dry cattle as required.
Having the drys will allow them to sell their cattle into a market quicker if they were to lose one of their lease blocks.
When it comes to sourcing their bulls, the Georges have been using the Buller family's Monterey stud for 15 years.
Brett said they like the Monterey bulls because they were easier calvers that developed quickly and have good milk production.
"The high milk production means the calves grow quicker," he said.
"Which in turn means we can sell the calves at 360 to 400 kilograms straight off their mums."
In the past, the Georges have had to sell their cattle as weaners due to feed and land restrictions but are now able to keep them up to 18 months old.
When they were in Esperance they were limited to selling to feedlots and through the Mt Barker saleyards, but now they have plenty of options, being able to sell into the Boyanup saleyards, or to Harvey Beef, V&V Walsh and Western Meat Processors.
"We can sell when we want to and take advantage of the high prices," Brett said.
With the record-breaking market prices, he said there was a great outlook for the industry.
"It's a tremendous time to be a breeder," he said.
Brett believes the prices will last for at least a few more years, while the Eastern States continue to recover from years of drought.
"The market should remain firm, if not improve because of the high demand for quality cattle," he said.
Another difference between the two locations is the seasonal conditions, especially annual rainfall as in Esperance they would receive a maximum of 700mm maximum, but they receive up to 1100m at the current location.
When the Georges moved in April 2019, locals were saying how dry the year was which was a surprise given the abundance of green feed around.
They said compared to Esperance, the green season lasted so much longer at Kudardup.
The strong rainfall meant the Georges have had green feed since last April.
The wet winter conditions can result in too much moisture being in the pastures so the cattle are supplement fed hay including oaten hay, haylage and pasture hay as a source of roughage.
All their hay is grown on the farm and lease blocks and this year they cut more than 400 rolls.
The hay side of their enterprise is mainly done by contractors as they said that buying the equipment and machinery to do it themselves was not worth the investment.
"We would be spending a lot of money on machinery that would be kept in the shed for 99 per cent of the year," Brett said.
To provide additional feed for the cattle, the Georges have done some soil testing and are increasing their fertiliser rates to ameliorate the soil and encourage more pasture growth.
The plan going forward is to replace the existing Kikuyu based pastures with clover and ryegrass.
In addition to their cattle enterprise, they run a livestock transport business.
When they first moved to the area Elders, Margaret River agent Alec Williams asked if Brett would be interested in transporting the occasional load of cattle.
"I have been delivering non-stop," Brett said.
As well as cattle, Kim and Brett both love horses and over the years have travelled interstate competing in national Team Roping competitions.
Currently, they have two Quarter horses and have built an arena on the property where people can come and learn to do roping and barrel racing.
The Georges are enjoying life at their new home and are looking forward to continuing to develop their cattle herd.
"Moving here is one of the best things we've ever done, we love it," they said.