EXPRESSIVE, confident and easy-going, Courtney Ramsey, 28, is presenting to producers at a field day on a property near Bell, in southeast Queensland about animal health.
Whether she’s manually pregnancy testing 1000 cows in one day, attempting a caesarean section on a distraught cow without a crush to secure it, or taking a close friend’s sick pet to surgery, Courtney’s working days are varied and often extreme – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Growing up in the small, rural town of Smithton in northwest Tasmania and surrounded by dairy farms, Courtney’s love for animals began early.
Following boarding school in Launceston, she travelled extensively through England and Europe for 12 months and on return, gained a place in veterinary science at Perth’s Murdoch University.
Now, firmly settled as a country vet for Bell Veterinary Services in southeast Queensland, she has developed a passion for the beef industry, campdrafting and her close-knit community.
“After graduation I wanted to go into a practice that was at least 70 percent cattle,” Courtney says. “The job in Bell offered a little bit of everything from dairy and beef cattle to feedlot work and small animals.” Her arrival in 2009 took her by surprise.
“I fell in love with Bell and the climate. A town of 300, it’s at the foothills of the stunning Buyna Mountains. I’d never seen sorghum or cotton crops before and was blown away by how lush the country was.”
With 70 percent of her work involving cattle, until recently feedlot work took up more than 50 percent of her time, travelling from Glen Innis to Emerald in Central Queensland and even to King Island for preg-testing, herd health work and with a gift for teaching, she trains staff in cattle handling, diagnosing sick cattle, treating cattle and performing autopsies.
“Recently I got repetitive strain injury (RSI) from too much preg-testing,” she says.
“So I spend more time in the clinic now with horse work, scanning mares, hoof work and general practice work. The beauty of a mixed practice is that no two days are the same. I could be stitching up a dog ripped by a pig, run out to a horse with colic or attend a calving cow. The rare, quiet days are a chance to catch up on the mounting paperwork.”
A month after her arrival in Bell, Courtney met her husband, Tom Ramsey, at the local show.
“Because the working hours are long and we’re often on the road, for a vet, meeting people can be hard. I didn’t know anyone when I moved here, so I made an effort to throw myself out there – I invited myself along to every event on. Bell is full of lovely people and I’ve made so many wonderful friends here.”
Courtney and Tom live on Tom’s family property, near Cooranga North, 20 minutes from Bell. “Tom breaks in horses and works on the property,” Courtney says.
“We’re both mad keen campdrafters and I’m the secretary of the Cooranga North Campdraft. Addicted to campdrafting, I’m up by 5am every morning to work my horses. It’s such a social, unique sport where everyone helps and cheers you on – not fiercely competitive like other sports. Everyone meets regularly at the campdraft ground for working bees, events and parties – it’s our community centre.”
