GOOD returns for their wool last week was some consolation for John and Diana Pickford, Woodanilling, after a very poor cropping season.
"It was a dreadful season, there were no spring rains," Ms Pickford said.
"Our oat crop was so poor we decided it wasn't worth harvesting so we fed the sheep on it, which was some sort of bonus I suppose," she said.
Their property, Beckwith, is in the hill country and was part of a strip through the South West and northern Great Southern which experienced a dry winter and spring.
The Pickfords' focus is on sheep and wool and this season was already looking much more promising, Mr Pickford said.
"I'm surprised at just how good it looks," he said.
"There's been some sprinkles of rain and there's a nibble of green for the sheep.
"We're lucky, our son Richard has taken over the breeding and flock management.
"For a lot of the younger farmers these days the focus is on cropping and they are not closely looking at sheep."
The Pickfords run a flock of 5000 Merinos and shear the wethers in August and the ewes in April.
Primaries of WA Mt Barker representative Steve Squires, who looks after the Pickfords' wool, said they had used Strath Haddon bloodlines for 45 years and produced "a good type of medium-build sheep".
"They produce a well-defined stylish wool with very good colour," Mr Squires said.
Buyers at the Western Wool Centre (WWC) on Thursday last week certainly liked it.
There was strong bidding competition and a good spread of buyers for the 80 bales from the latest ewe shearing which sold in 10 lines to a top of 1062 cents per kilogram greasy.
Only one line failed to top 1000c and then by only 4c.
The Pickfords' main fleece lines showed good specification with microns from 17.5-18.7, yields mostly of 66 per cent and one line of 69.4pc and staple length generally in the 94-100mm range.
The demand for their pieces and bellies continued the stronger recent trend and surprised the Pickfords with the prices achieved compared to what they would have made just a week earlier.
"It's a very good result and I was very pleased with how our wool looked," Mr Pickford said.
The finer micron wools like the Pickfords' led the market higher at the WWC last week with the Western Indicator finishing the week up 22c at 1383 compared to Melbourne up 18c at 1268 and Sydney up 21 at 1318.
Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) technical officer at the WWC, Dave Aslett confirmed rising prices and good demand for good specification finer wools had drawn some wool out of wool stores last week.
The exchange rate, with the Australian dollar sinking last week, has also helped demand.
There are no wool sales scheduled for the WWC next week for the first time this season.