LAST year was a busy one for Corey Weguelin but the Corrigin contractor wouldn't have it any other way.
The 27-year-old juggled the management of his hay contracting business, a full-time job as a farm-hand and welcomed a third child to his family with his wife Katherine.
"I'm a bit of a workaholic - I love doing the hours," Corey said.
Agriculture has always been a part of his life - having grown up on his grandparents' farm in Tincurrin before moving to Corrigin.
Corey completed a trade as a boilermaker but had no interest in straying too far from his agricultural roots.
"It's in your blood - once you leave it you want to go back to it," he said.
"As soon as I was qualified I left - I just like being outside and the challenge of farming."
After working a season at SP Hay in Brookton, Corey gained employment with Bradley and Rynelle Smoker, working on their sheep and cereal farm at Gorge Rock for the past five years.
The family has given him the flexibility to establish his own business, Millden Hay, that has been operating since 2014.
"It was named after our first two sons - Miller and Brayden," Katherine said.
"The Smokers are really good and they're more than happy for me to do my contracting," Corey said.
"At the same time it works, if they have hay themselves we make sure they go straight to the top of the list because they let us do what we do.
"It gives us the security of a full-time wage when we know we've got the rest of the year covered."
Corey said his hay contracting idea became reality after a local contractor sold his business and left the area.
"In 2012 we had a lot of inquiries with people wanting us to cut hay but our machinery wasn't good enough, so in 2013 we stepped up and got a tractor and a mower."
In 2015 he purchased a round baler and last year an export square baler joined the inventory.
"Sheep have come back into favour so there's a bit more hay to do there, and with exporters now trying to work with the farmers and take their product no matter what, I guess at the end of the day growing hay has become safer."
An increased hay contracting demand and unfavourable baling conditions kept Corey busy in 2016.
"The moisture was coming in early at night and it was quite warm during the day, so we were only getting little windows.
"I think I was running the mower by myself for between 18 and 20 hours a day."
As the business continues to grow Corey will consider taking on more staff.
"I think if we have a season anything like last year we're going to have to employ someone because you physically can't do it on your own."
With three children at home and a busy schedule during the hay season Katherine said one of the biggest challenges of running a business was time management.
"We've got to work with everyone else's program - you could have 10 clients and everything might be ready to go at once.
"Corey spends most of the hay season on the phone when he is at home, talking to everybody, trying to find out when things are ready to go and watching the weather," she said.
"You're trying to do more than you're capable of doing, but at the same time you don't want to let people down," Corey said.
He said communication was key to building sustainable business relationships.
"You need to let people know what is going on - as soon as you break down communication and clients don't hear from you, that's when things go pear-shaped.
"It's hard because some mornings when it's too wet or too dry, I come home and all I want to do is spend time with Katherine and the kids - but I spend two hours on the phone and then I have got to go to work again."
Luckily the couple's three boys enjoy the busy hay season as much as their father.
"The kids love it - if we're within the region of Corrigin, Katherine will bring out dinner and we'll have five of us in the tractor," he said.
"That's what you do it for.
"Katherine does a lot of running around - whether it's string runs after dinner, escorting gear, or part runs all over the State so I don't have to stop," he said.
Corey said he also felt grateful to be supported by such a close-knit community, that recently banded together to help a neighbour finish harvest, following a death in the family.
"Local farmers pulled together nine headers, five chaser bins and 17 trucks to take off the crop and we stripped off about 636 hectares in a day," he said.
"It started off pretty small and then we had people from town who wanted to help because they couldn't bring machinery."
Katherine said she was impressed by the Corrigin community's eagerness to offer support.
"All the community is amazing - it's amazing how quickly everyone finds out everything and everyone is willing to help," she said.
The couple is looking to expand the business in the future.
"I guess the goal is to be fully self-employed one day but how long that takes depends on the season and depends on business," Corey said.
"We want to buy a couple of hundred acres or even a thousand acres to farm ourselves and to have the shed space for a workshop.
"At the end of the day a hay baler and a tractor and this business is important but it's nowhere near as important as keeping a house over these kids.
"That's what is all comes down to - that's what you're doing it for.
"You've just got to be prepared to work harder or longer if that's what its takes."
