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OUR STORY: MILLS AND HORNE | 11

While Leonie Mills has now taken the Bevan Oster, his son Kaden Zerk, Jake Oster, Elden Oster, Charlie Oster and Hughie Oster, in the shearing sh
reins when it comes to the family farm, the late 1990s.
her father Alex Horne is never far from
the action, while son Justin Mills has
returned in recent years to grow the
farm into the future.

of the Morley sale each year, with it actually the sun was coming up because I just wanted to
built the same year Alex was born. be out on the farm,” she said.
Since its inception, the sale has reached a “Dad would’ve been out in the old Chamberlain
high of $5200 on-property, with up to 120 with no cab or anything in his big military-style
rams offered at one point. jacket and I’d just snuggle up next to him on
Other highlights for the stud throughout the the bench seat and go round and round the
year include winning grand champion Poll paddocks.
Merino ram at the Royal Adelaide Show in “I think I always knew I’d be in agriculture in
1997 and subsequently selling that ram for some way.”
$20,000 to a Western Australian stud. To his delight, Alex says he remembers Leonie
This year, the family hopes to offer 60 rams being in her early teens, throwing fleeces in the
at the sale, in addition to taking some to the shearing shed better than the male shed hands.
Adelaide ram sale during the Royal Adelaide Monty also had a keen interest in the farm and,
Show. upon completing an agriculture course at Cleve,
“Showing our sheep at the royal has been returned to the property to work alongside his
one of the most worthwhile experiences we’ve father.
done,” Leonie said. Not long after, Leonie realised high school
“It’s a really good opportunity to get your wasn’t the path for her, and decided to work full
sheep out in front of people but also meet with time on the farm with the pair in 1980 while Monty
other breeders and build industry connections, left for his own property later down the line.
it’s been invaluable for us. Since then, Leonie has made her mark not only
“It’s probably one of the cheapest forms of within the family farm, but also as part of different
marketing you can do and if you come out on boards and committees in the industry, including
top with a sash, then it’s even better.” sitting as treasurer on the Merino SA executive
Bucking the trend committee and a stint as a board member on the
SA Sheep Advisory Group.
Leonie, and her siblings Monty and Nadine, “Jon has said it wasn’t that surprising that
all have fond memories of growing up on the I married a farmer, but he didn’t think that he
property, but Leonie’s love of the industry stood would, and I guess that sums up how common,
out from an early age. or uncommon, it was for daughters to go back Rams from the stud are getting prepped by Leonie
“I remember being about four-years old and on the farm when I came back on the farm,” she Mills for sale day and the Royal Adelaide Show.
wandering out into the paddock to find Dad when said.