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."