WHEN many other farmers in the Lake Grace area were sending their sheep packing in favour of total cropping, Bill Willcocks couldn't bear to do the same.
He couldn't throw away decades of careful breeding and selection, dating back to 1928 when the first of three generations of Willcocks started farming at the Lake Grace/Pingrup property.
The way Bill sees it, stock can earn its place on the farm by replacing itself, but machinery can't.
"Well, you can't skin a Steiger and eat it, can you?" he asked.
"Our sheep have three generations of breeding in them and if we had sold them, there's no way we would ever get that back.
"We've always thought mixed farming is the way to go, even in the tough years."
These days Bill farms in conjunction with his brother Rob and his son Rohan, who separated the farms in 1980 at a time when they were running around 10,000 Merino breeders.
In 1970 the Willcocks family purchased the majority of the 2600 hectares that is now known as Bill's Brookfield farm and where they crutched 3100 Merino sheep this year.
He runs 1000 breeding ewes, 800 hoggets and 700 lambs in addition to 600 two to three-year-old wethers.
His flock was built based on a strong commitment by both his grandfather and father to focus on buying high quality genetics.
"They didn't compromise on the quality of sheep on this place," Bill said.
"If you want to improve your flock you have to be willing to spend the money on good genetics."
One such trait Bill mentioned was a tongue-in-cheek pearl of wisdom his father passed on, which was to make sure he bought rams with big mouths so they got plenty of feed into them to grow some wool.
Despite recognising there was an equilibrium balance between cropping and sheep, Bill said he has always been a sheep man and was particularly proud of his wool.
The 500 Merino ewes that were brought to the property in 1928, purchased from the Gaze family, Gnowangerup, provided the ideal base to put Glenroy stud rams over until 1936, after which the Willcocks swapped to Rob Bishop's Brockham stud, Lake Grace.
Bill said working closely with Rob for many years taught him a lot about sheep and wool, with Rob's commitment to buying exceptional rams for new genetics and breeding.
"He wouldn't settle unless he had the best," Bill said.
"I learned quite a lot about sheep from Rob and it's held me in good stead over the years.
"I guess I'm a bit of a wool man, I do enjoy getting a nice wool cut around that 21 micron mark."
Over the last few years Bill has worked toward breeding a plain-bodied animal that cuts an average of six kilograms of bright, white wool.
Part of the breeding program included buying his six to eight quality Merino rams a year since 2000, from the Gooding family's East Mundalla Merino stud, Lake Grace.
After the rams are joined with the ewes during the first week of November, the lambs start arriving throughout April.
This allows all the sheep to be in optimum condition for shearing at the end of July, with the lambs being shorn a month later.
The pattern hasn't changed too much over the years, particularly with Bill's three year rotation of a paddock in crop for one year and pasture the remaining two years, despite some tough seasons and limited feed.
But one positive to come out of the last few dry years was the Willcocks were able to cull their flock quite hard and have kept only the best performers.
"There's no point in keeping bad sheep in bad years," Bill said.
"That was probably the only good thing about those recent dry years, and now we have a flock with finer wool and plainer bodies."
There was also a silver lining for the Willcocks family during the drought in 2010, as they were among some of the producers who received a State record high price of $110 a head for 250 1.5yo Merino ewes.
Like most of the sheep that left the State that year, they went to Victoria where they were re-stocking after a great start to the season, while most of WA was de-stocking, creating a mutually beneficial trade.
Bill wasn't keen to let them go but said they had to reduce their numbers, which may have been a blessing in disguise as he has since started to wind back his involvement as he inches toward retirement.
But like many farmers with their heart and soul in what they do, stepping off the farm might be small strides for Bill.
"I left school to come farming and I've been here ever since," he said.
"It's all I ever wanted to do."
