To be a farmer in this land of drought and flooding rains, you need to love a challenge, but that term has taken on a new meaning in Casino.
The town on the NSW north coast, which battles with Queensland's Rockhampton for the title of Australia's beef capital, hosted the inaugural fittest farmer challenge.
The event, part of Beef Week celebrations, is the brainchild of local gym owner Kellie Handford.
"Most of the people that come to my facility are rural people," she said.
"It was actually the natural progression for me to understand and incorporate our normal daily life from farm work into a physical challenge."
All in a day's work
More than 30 two-person teams embraced the challenge, which featured seven stages.
They included dragging a weighted sled (don't pull a calf!), moving bales of hay, driving in fence posts and rolling tyres.
Navanka Fletcher completed the course with relative ease and backed up for a second round.
She said it was all in a day's work for a farmer.
"Well, that's what they do," she said.
"They might go pull a calf, put a new tyre on the tractor, put some fence panels up, throw some hay in, so they all do that all day, every day."
But everyone agreed the toughest stage was the last one.
"Definitely the tyre flip," Ms Fletcher said.
"That is so heavy and so hard to get it up the hill and back down.
"My arms were really hurting by the end of that."
It's hoped the challenge might become an annual event,t and who knows, perhaps there is potential for a TV spin-off.
Australian Wagyu Warrior, anyone?
