TWO young women are now modern day pioneers in the live cattle export trade.
At a time when the industry is under political pressure, Tam Michalek, 27, and Chloe Grant, 29, have become the youngest women in Australia to hold a live export licence.
And they love it, with Ms Michalek going as far to say - even if she won Lotto tonight - she would still be out loading the boat tomorrow."It is an absolute privilege for us to be part of a supply chain that feeds the world," Ms Michalek said.
"That is what we do and I will stand by that like steel."
The women, working as T&T Rural Contracting, sent their first shipment of 3723-head of Droughtmaster cross cattle to Israel in February this year and have since exported a second shipment with 2663-head.
The next shipment is due to depart in April with numbers yet to be confirmed.
Having giving their heart and soul to the trade, the women had never imagined one day overseeing their own livestock export consignment.
Their journey to get to this point has been no easy feat.
In Ms Michalek's words, it was sink or swim - with no option to sink.
"I would've walked over hot coals before we sank," she said.
"We took a real risk in getting this licence.
"You have to have a bit of guts and grunt in ya, even if it makes you nervous, you just gotta do it.
"We were packing it in, but I look now and see we hold that licence - it is so incredible for us."
Ms Michalek has three loves in life: her husband Tom, cattle, then live export.
With roots tracing back to Naracoorte, in South Australia's south east, she landed her first export job with breeder cattle set for China.
At 18, she followed the trade to Western Australia and has since left her mark on the red meat supply chain - buying cattle, running quarantines, working on consignments in operations and compliance and travelling overseas on a livestock vessel and freighter plane.
When the company Ms Michalek was working for went into administration in 2021, she bit the bullet and became a contractor, but she wasn't sure how it was going to play out.
"I was fortunate enough to score two exporters, who were pretty open-minded and took me on,'' she said.
"Within six months, I landed five contracts - all with small exporters."
When you work in live export, it doesn't matter if you are dealing with 200, 2000 or 20,000 head.
You need the same compliance with approved arrangements and to understand the standards.
Ms Michalek slotted into this area and before long she was approached by a third party to setup a licence.
"My initial understanding was I'd help them set the licence up and they would run it themselves," she said.
"They started with the approach that they wanted me to manage the licence and be the licence holder."
Ms Michalek thought, 'yep I can do that, but I can't do it alone'.
Grabbing her phone, she sent Ms Grant - who lives and works in the Northern Territory - a Facebook message saying she had a business proposal and signing off the message with boat and cow emojis.
On the other side of the country, Ms Grant's phone pinged and she was overcome with excitement.
She replied with without words, just a lot of emojis.
Ms Grants dream's was always to live on a cattle station and chase cows in the red dirt.
After graduating high school, she deferred university, packed her bags and moved to northern Australia.
With her "say-yes-to-any-opportunity" attitude, there weren't many station jobs Ms Grant didn't try, including governessing, branding weaners, driving graders and bore runs.
Hauling six decks of cattle across the Top End and flying station-to-station to pregnancy test cattle was also nothing for her to blink at.
As time passed, she tapped into a more administrative role with payroll and invoices.
In 2011 - when the cattle ban to Indonesia was put in place - she felt somewhat disconnected from live export because she didn't understand the ins-and-outs of it all.
"I am very much one who's like, be ready for whatever opportunity comes, grab it by both hands and run with it," Ms Grant said.
"So I was like 'yeah put me on a boat, I want to see it with my own two eyes'.''
She was on a boat three weeks later, with a few thousand cattle, 26 Filipino men and one Australian man - journeying from Wyndham Port to Panjang, Indonesia.
She was homesick, seasick and completely out of her comfort zone, but there was no turning back.
Anxieties of the unknown soon turned to excitement, after Ms Grant spent five days touring feedlots, abattoirs, farms and wet markets.
She was able to see what the live export trade did for Australian farmers and their overseas consumers.
Two voyages later and in 2019, she was accredited as a head stockwoman.
"I asked my employer to let me be the middle person, so they could have someone in every part of the supply chain," Ms Grant said.
"It was difficult with exporting cattle, but they said if I wanted to do boats as a head stockperson I could, as long as preg testing came first.
"I had the ultimate job."
While on a boat to Jakarta she received a phone call from the operations manager at an export company in Darwin.
"I got your number from your general manager, he doesn't want to lose you, but I have a job for you'' he told her.
"I accepted and thrived in my job,'' Ms Grant said.
"I travelled across northern Australia exporting cattle, meeting and working with some great people, however 18 months later I was made redundant - just like that.
"It was completely out of the blue and the biggest shock of my life."
With a shared love for cattle and live export, there was no doubt in Ms Michalek's mind Ms Grant would make the perfect business partner.
"I was told if you want to work with someone, find someone who has the same passion, but a different skill set," Ms Michalek said.
"While I could manage the compliance side of things, I didn't have the capacity or detailed understanding when it came to operations."
She found that in Ms Grant.
"I knew Chloe through the industry and her strong social media presence," Ms Michalek said.
"Given that live export was - and still very much is - in a lull, I knew if I didn't get her when I did, then someone else would."
Pitching a business proposal to someone she hadn't met and who lives across Australia was a massive gamble.
Going up against some big names in WA's live export trade, no-one could know what Ms Michalek had planned.
She took a leap of faith, asking Ms Grant onboard and to keep the start up quiet.
"Chloe had a passion for the industry and wanted to come back for the right people and in the right mindset," she said.
Ms Grant said holding her own live export licence was a lifelong goal.
"When Tam reached out I thought 'this is it','' she said.
"No one else was going to hand me an export licence and we have to make opportunities work as they come."
For six months, the pair worked around-the-clock together, without meeting in person.
Eventually their paths crossed in Darwin, when Ms Michalek attended the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association conference and dropped in to have a beer with a colleague, who coincidentally lived with Ms Grant.
They couldn't give away that they knew each other, nor talk about what they had been working on.
"We acted like we'd never spoken," Ms Grant said.
"We kept it quiet right up until we got approval for the licence."
Ms Grant was pulled up on the side of a dirt road, in a remote community about 800 kilometres south of Darwin, when she received the final email that changed her life - their export licence was approved.
Given the 1.5 hour time difference, it was only 6.30am in WA and Mrs Michalek was not a morning person.
"I messaged her - 'oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I am going to call you'," she said.
"I could see Tam was just like, 'Oh strewth, what's gone wrong?'
"I told her it had been approved, we had got our own export licence.
"There was this realisation it was happening after a good, six-month approval process."
Despite the planning secrecy, before the licence was approved they had each told their fathers - who vowed to back them all the way.
"The day we got the licence I phoned dad and said 'I've got news for you','' Ms Grant said.
"That bloody licence came through didn't it? I bloody knew you'd do this," he replied.
Once the approval was through, the pair could share their news with other family, friends and the people they would be working with.
Given Ms Michalek had been exporting cattle for 10 years, her family needed more details.
"My family were super excited and happy, I am fortunate they've always supported me in the ag sector," she said.
"It was just the nitty gritty they were removed from.
"I told them this means it's all on us now, from start to finish, it's all us."
The women said the reaction they received from the industry has also been overwhelmingly positive, with peak industry bodies happy to have them onboard.
Other exporters were also supportive.
"Some people in this industry who have supported us straight up, black and blue," Mrs Michalek said.
"It is a small industry and we appreciate the support that we have got from everyone."
"From go to whoa" is how Ms Michalek would describe the past 12 months.
Once she was given the greenlight, after being approached by the export company in 2022, it was knuckle down and get it done.
"(On that first shipment) we were like, 'right she's on the water' and 80pc within us just wanted to jump out of our skin with excitement," she said.
"However, you're still conscious it needs to get to the other side and the job isn't over until all those animals have been discharged and humanely processed in the country."
Ms Michalek and Ms Grant supply to a family-owned importer, Bassem Dabbah Livestock Export, based in Israeli, which strongly supports them in the trade.
The daughter - a woman also in her 20s - travelled to Australia to view the first consignment under the new licence.
Both consignments ran smoothly and had good results with no issues, something the pair describe as a "pinch me" moment.
They use a local livestock buyer, Perth-based Graham Brown, who has brought cattle for the importer over the past 15 years.
All of the cattle are sourced from WA and are assembled at three local feedlots for a minimum of eight clear days.
Often they are held for longer, which helps them become more acclimatised to feeding out of the troughs and bunks - similar to conditions on a vessel.
Ms Michalek said protocals in Israel and China had become some of the most difficult to meet for communication, testing and timing requirements.
"It is not as if just the exporter and importer are communicating between each other," she said.
"We have to bring the Australian government onboard and they have to communicate with the Israeli government also.
"The time difference is an absolute cruncher for us, as well as the work days, as their weekend is different to ours."
Ms Grant said another challenge was being in the public eye from shipping out of the Fremantle port.
"I would say Fremantle is the toughest port anywhere in Australia,'' she said.
"You always have added pressure because the public eye - including animal activists - is watching and disrupting livestock during transport to the wharf and that is a challenge within itself.
"We are part of something beyond Australian agriculture, we supply the world with food."
While it is a mind-blowing concept for both women to say out loud, it is one reason they love what they do.
"I may only be a small stepping stone, but I get a real kick out of being that stepping stone," Ms Michalek said.
Ms Grant added: "Who else gets to sign, seal and deliver Australian protein to the world?"
"Not many people get to put their name and signature on that sort of stuff."
The pair didn't always think they had the guts to help the world as they are now.
Nor did they think it was possible.
But they've proved themselves wrong with everything they have achieved.
"I can go to South East Asia, sit in a third world country and know children have better access to protein because of Australian agriculture," Ms Michalek said.
"I can go to Israel and know that the families have access to protein for the same reason.
"Or the Philippines, where they are getting milk because of the Australian dairy cattle.
"Families have jobs, people have businesses and we are feeding the world - it is about the entire supply chain."
Outside of holding their own licence, the pair work with other exporters going to South East Asia and are heavily involved with the Young Livestock Exporters Network.
Mr Michalek runs a farm with her husband in Gidgegannup, where she overseas a herd of Angus/Speckle Park cattle and grows hay.
Ms Grant also works for the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association.
Neither can see themselves doing anything else - this is who they are and what they live and breathe.
Ms Michalek said she wouldn't have been able to do any of it without Ms Grant's moral and physical support on the ground to execute the boats.
She said they are a business, but more than anything a team.
Ms Michaelek said it was also great to see the industry progressing, particularly with more young people coming through, she said.
"We talk to young people working for corporates, and tell them we have our own export licence," she said.
"It is giving both young people and females a boost and reminding them to back themselves and take whatever opportunity comes up.
"Give it a redhot crack and you never know where it will end up - if it doesn't work, it doesn't work."
Ms Grant added: "You don't have to take every bit of advice on board.
"Take away something good, bad and ugly from everyone and everything."
