When Jon Wright came out as gay as a 28-year-old farmer, he found support from the community and family — a welcome relief for the grazier after many years of inner turmoil.
"The biggest struggle you have is the struggle you have with yourself," he said.
"It takes a long time to become comfortable with your sexuality.
"And I guess the relief was just not having to lie anymore, not put out any fires anymore, just to be able to be yourself."
Mr Wright is a fourth-generation cattle farmer based at Woodstock, near Cowra, in New South Wales' central west.
"I wouldn't call Cowra the gay centre of New South Wales," he laughed.
"But there certainly are other gay people around the town."
Mr Wright said that after coming out, he would frequently visit Sydney to find kindred spirits.
"Just to be in a place where I knew everybody in the room was gay, because my experience was, wherever I was before, I sort of virtually knew everybody in the room wasn't gay," he said.
"And so that made just a feeling of acceptance."
But despite his attraction to the city, Mr Wright could not bring himself to move away.
"The draw was never strong enough to make me leave the farm," he said.
"The environment, the love of caring for animals … that gives me so much joy that there's no way I'm going to throw that away for anything."
A passion for farming
For the past two decades, Mr Wright has been breeding a line of cattle he calls Blue-E — a combination of Shorthorn, Angus and Simmental genetics — to improve feed efficiency.
"The power of feed efficiency is really quite amazing," he said.
"One of the exciting parts is high feed-converting animals produce less methane."
He is helping with research seeking to make the beef industry more sustainable.
Mr Wright is proud of the business he has built, but acknowledges he will eventually have to sell because he does not have another generation to pass it onto.
"The issue of not being able to have children is another whole story that I don't hear talked about that much in the gay world," he said.
"It's just another challenge that we have to take on.
"I've certainly seen that in other friends, in straight couples who can't have children. It's an enormous thing and there's no reason why it's any different for gay people."
Living in a small country town has also made finding a partner difficult.
"I'm still hoping that maybe I'll meet somebody one day, but it does not dominate my life anymore," Mr Wright said.
"I'm concentrated on what I do, and try to be a good person and contribute to my industry."
Rejecting stereotypes
Further north near Newcastle, Alex Berry runs a boutique goat dairy while his partner Bradd Dillon, an equestrian rider, manages horses on their 20-hectare property at Seaham.
Like Mr Wright, Mr Berry said his family and friends gave him every support when he announced he was gay.
"I was worried that I'd be shunned, completely not the case at all," he said.
Mr Berry said he did not want to be defined by his sexuality and rejected the stereotypical image of a gay man.
"I never wanted to be like what the iconic gay man was supposed to be. It scared me," he said.
"I don't act any different to how I am right now and I think a big part of being who you are is not trying to be someone else. Just be yourself.
"I'd rather be known as the goat man than the gay man."
Moving to goats
Mr Berry's parents used to run a dairy farm, but shifted to goats during the drought in 2007.
Alex went on to start his own goat dairy, milking 200 goats, but has since downsized to focus on breeding and judging.
"I had an opportunity to go to America and basically I fell in love with a breed called LaMancha and they're an earless breed," he said.
After five years, he finally gained approval to import LaMancha genetic material to start breeding them.
"They're higher casein protein (a type of slow-digesting dairy protein) so we get more yield of product," Mr Berry said.
"So I only have to milk 20 goats and the cheese maker gets the right amount of product to then onsell at the farmer's markets."
Mr Berry believes society has become more accepting of homosexuality and is becoming even more so with each generation.
"I take my hat off to those before us, that had to do it a lot harder and be subject to hate," he said.
"It's a tough gig to be a gay man or woman in any industry, let alone agriculture.
"But I think being subjected to a generic stamp is even tougher."
Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday, or on ABC iview.
