GROWING up in the ag school system, Billi Marshall knew her interest was in cattle and her career in the industry started by following in her father's footsteps.
As a child, Ms Marshall's dad Kevin worked at the Western Australian College of Agriculture - Morawa and when she was seven, the family moved to Bindoon where he took over managing the farm at Edmund Rice College.
Attending the college, formally known as the Catholic Agricultural College Bindoon, she gained a lot of skills and by the end of high school had earned a Certificate II in agriculture, wool handling, equine, and horse breeding.
Straight after graduation, the family relocated to Northampton and Ms Marshall had a job driving an airseeder for the Cripps family where she ended up working for three years.
"I really enjoyed it but it just wasn't my forte," Ms Marshall said.
"They were awesome people to work for, it was a great environment, but it just didn't interest me in the same way cows always did in school."
There was something about seeing the cattle process from start to finish across multiple years which always appealed to her.
Ms Marshall was able to pick out her cows and a bull to artificially inseminate (AI) them to, pregnancy test them, see a calf on the ground and watch it through to weaning and see it go through the ranks until it was ready to be sold.
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"It's a massive process but it's incredible to see the results of all the work you put in and the investment that goes into three or four years of breeding," she said.
Knowing that was where her enthusiasm lied, she took a job as a trainer at the Morawa ag college - the same job her father had 20 years beforehand - and spent two and a half years managing the sheep and cattle operations at the school while training the students for their Certificate III in agriculture.
It was there Ms Marshall met BOS Vet and Rural owner Matt Carrick, who was the vet in charge of AI programs and pregnancy testing at the school.
It was Dr Carrick who offered Ms Marshall her first job in the reproductive side of the cattle industry and in 2018 she moved to Dongara to work for him.
"He's trained me in a massive amount of cattle reproduction - artificial insemination, embryos, semen collecting - you name it and he's taught me," she said.
"I also got exposure to the export industry and pregnancy testing, nutrition and other branches of reproduction."
With Dr Carrick's help, Ms Marshall applied to the Veterinary Surgeons' Board of WA in 2020 and was certified to pregnancy test cattle, something which usually requires one to be a qualified vet.
From there, the stage was set and last year Ms Marshall purchased the pregnancy testing side of the business from BOS Vet and created Imperial Bovine Breeding Services.
While she now works for herself, she is still a regular at BOS and helps Dr Carrick when he needs it.
"In my job now, I don't have any cows of my own, but I can interact with other people's production lines and you can see a lifetime of working going into breeding that sort of animal," she said.
"You get to be there at AI, then pregnancy testing to see the results and then go back next year and find out how it how it all went and how the calves are looking, which is so rewarding because I was there nine months beforehand when it all started."
For Ms Marshall, pregnancy testing is an adventure which brings with it an opportunity to travel and explore.
There is a very limited number of people who perform pregnancy testing in WA.
Based in Dongara, Ms Marshall provides services to the entire Pilbara and Gascoyne, so it's a massive area to cover and there are a lot of cattle out there.
A lot of the people she has spoken to up in those regions have never pregnancy tested before, simply because they couldn't get anyone to do it.
With nothing tying her down, she is able to head up to the Pilbara at the drop of a hat, something which she's done just recently.
"You work hard, you're in a dirty set of overalls and a dusty set of yards, it's hot and there's flies everywhere," Ms Marshall said.
"But at the end of it you get the job done and can have a beer with some really interesting people in some really unique parts of the country."
Now a year into owning her business, Ms Marshall has started looking into a few other avenues the business could go down, such as freeze branding and programming for clients in terms of vaccinations and injections.
However, the focus will always be providing the best service she can.
"A job such as vaccinating cattle is just one big day in the yards and I've found a really strong interest in helping clients do jobs like that," she said.
"Providing a service to all of the producers out there to help them better manage their properties and herds can make a huge difference to their operation.
"Big picture, I also have a really strong interest in nutrition and how that directly correlates to reproduction to help farmers improve their operation."
In her spare time, which there isn't much of, Ms Marshall is a committee member for the McIntosh & Son Mingenew Midwest Expo (which is on this Friday, August 12) and is president of the WA Youth Cattle Handlers Camp.
She also started a networking group, AdvocateAg, which was about trying to connect young people in agriculture to have a conversation.
Ms Marshall believes that as an industry, more needs to be done to encourage young people to join.
"I have a really strong interest in youth in ag and trying to spread the word to young people that you can forge a career in this industry without being from a family farm," she said.
"There are so many jobs out there and there can be a dark shadow which floats around ag that says you need to come from a farming background, but it's just not true.
"We've got a massive gap in the industry age wise and while we are starting to see a good group of young people under 35 come through, there is a big gap and we need more."
