Young North West Queensland producers build beef business with QRIDA First Start Loan

Both involved in their parent’s beef operations from a young age, Sam and Julia Burge are forging their own successful beef business with the help of a QRIDA First Start Loan. 

The Burges used the First Start Loan to purchase 200 head of pregnancy tested in-calf (PTIC) heifers to accompany their existing 323 head of cattle, build their numbers and take a step forward in creating a viable beef operation. 

“We approached Sam Fryer, our Regional Area Manager, and we got the QRIDA First Start Loan and, with that, we purchased 200 head of PTIC heifers,” says Julia.

“We definitely couldn’t have done it off our own back. Being a young family it would have just been too hard, too much. The First Start Loan has definitely given us the lift that we need.”

Sam and Julia reminisce about growing up being a part of their own family’s beef operations as the foundation for their passion of creating their own beef business. 

“My family own a big company, Burge Grazing, so we’ve just gone off that pretty much and done our own thing off the side of that. I love it, there’s nothing else I’d do, it’s a good job,” says Sam. 

“I grew up around Richmond with my family just being off the land as well, I guess it’s just a passion of ours and all we know,” adds Julia.

The low interest rates and interest-only periods were attractive features of the First Start Loan for Sam and Julia, making it more accessible than other financial support. 

“With the First Start Loan, it had low interest rates and we could fund what the interest rate was,” says Sam.

“There’s all that fun stuff like paperwork but you get through it all. It is a drawn-out process but I think you get that anywhere you go for loaning money.

“My advice would be do your research before you go in and just ring up and have a yarn. It’s not going to be easy, it could take a while but you’ll succeed in the end hopefully if you try hard enough,” he says.

Julia says it was great to have local support from their Regional Area Manager for the North West and Gulf, Sam Fryer, to answer their questions about the application process. 

“Sam Fryer was a great help and guided us along the way in the right directions that we needed. He told us openly and honestly what we had to provide QRIDA to get the First Start Loan,” she says.

QRIDA’s First Start Loan offers up to $2 million to help producers purchase livestock to start their own farm business, purchase property, carry out family succession plans or enter into lease or share-farming arrangements. 

For more information on QRIDA’s First Start Loan, contact your local Regional Area Manager on 1800 623 946 or visit the First Start Loan webpage.