Young Dulacca-based stud owner plans a future in cattle

Aleacea Nixon runs her own hereford and gelbvieh stud and is selling two bulls at the upcoming February All Breeds Sale.

IMPRESSIVE START: Aleacea Nixon with Weetalabah Ladies Man. Picture: contributed

At 14, Aleacea Nixon started her own cattle stud.

Two years later she sold her first bull.

Now at 18, she is heading to her first February All Breeds Bull and Female Sale at Gracemere hoping to sell two more.

At her Dulacca-based stud, Mickey Mouse, Ms Nixon breeds herefords and gelbviehs.

She said starting her stud was relatively easy and she was lucky to have the support of her parents, Julie and Aderian.

“They have had their own stud for nearly 30 years,” Ms Nixon said.

“I was up at Beef in Rockhampton in 2015 and I decided then that I’d like to be able to show something that had my name on it, not just lead for my parents.”

Ms Nixon said her parents helped feed and look after her cattle while she was at school and university.

“I am very thankful that my parents have been able to help me,” she said.

“It certainly made it a lot easier.

“I’m studying a Bachelor of Animal Science at UNE in Armidale and I’m hoping to go into animal nutrition and health. It gives me an excuse to play with cows for the rest of my life.

“I’m at home at the moment for summer break, then I’ll head back straight after the bull sale.

“I definitely miss home, I miss my animals. But I have to look at the bigger picture and when I get through my degree so I can come home and do what I want to do.”

Ms Nixon hopes to use her degree to help expand her cattle operation.

“I want to be able to expand my stud herd,” she said.

“But also have commercial and be feeding my own cattle with my own nutritional program to promote the hereford and gelbvieh breeds.”

Growing up around herefords and gelbviehs at her parents’ stud, Weetalabah, Ms Nixon developed a passion for the breeds.

“Temperament is a big thing and that both the breeds can go into any herd anywhere and work,” she said.

“My hereford bull is 1000kg in the middle of the drought.

“He’s not being fed, he’s just on grass, he’s done that himself.

“It’s very dry, it’s not easy. It’s put pressure on before the sale.

“I’m hoping they can sell because we can’t keep feeding them. We need to free up space for other stock coming through.”

Ms Nixon said it had been hard work preparing the bulls for the sale.

She will sell her hereford bull Mickey Mouse Magic Mike M057 and gelbvieh bull Mickey Mouse Mercury M080 at the sale.

“As we’re in a rip-roaring drought, a lot of it has been about being able to keep them content and happy and fed enough that they don’t look like show bulls but their coats are clean and they look good,” she said.

“We haven’t been able to source grain so we’ve just recently brought in a bull ration that’s helped get them to where they are at the moment.

“They don’t get very much because we want to push cattle that can survive — and ours will — but we’ve got no feed so everyone is feeding.”

Ms Nixon said she always got nervous before a sale.

“I’m a bit nervous, as we all are at any sale, but I’m really hoping that I can sell,” she said.

“Being my first time (at the sale) it will be a bit of struggle and because of the drought but I’m hoping my cattle will stand above that.

“I received a bit of interest in my hereford, not so much in my gelbveih. He’s being put up with my parents’ stud to promote gelbviehs up there, which is what we’re trying to do.

“It’s calming to know someone might like him but it still doesn’t matter until you’re in that sale ring and the first bid is called.

“You’re still just as nervous until you know that he’s sold.”

Ms Nixon has sold two bulls before — one hereford at Wodonga in 2017 and one at an Emerald all breeds sale in 2018.

“It feels amazing to have the means and the family support to be able to sell my bulls,” she said.

“I couldn’t do it without my parents, they’re the whole reason I do this. They’ve ingrained in me the love of cattle.

“And to be able to send two amazing bulls to an all breeds sale at age 18 is phenomenal. I can’t describe how amazing it is that I get to represent the breeds so young.”

Famously known as the face of Disney, Mickey Mouse was a unique name for a cattle stud and Ms Nixon said she got lots of questions about it.

“My nickname growing up was Mouse,” she said.

“And in Australia, Mickey Mouse means fantastic and that’s what I want to breed.”

The February All Breeds Bull and Female Sale will be held on February 12 and 13.

Visit www.rlx.com.au.