WHILE Merinos have come and gone from the Ayers family farming operation at Esperance over the years, they are very much an important part of the business now.
Murray and Julie Ayers farm with their sons Cameron and his wife Greta and Lachlan and his wife Kirsten.
The business involves large cropping operations at Cascade and Munglinup, while the sheep are run at Myamba Downs at Salmon Gums in conjunction with a cropping program there.
Murray and Julie moved to Cascade in 1988 from the South West and Merinos were included in the farming operation from the start.
But in 2008, on the back of declining values for sheep and good returns from cropping, the family made the decision to sell off all the sheep.
"The economic value just wasn't there at the time and also wild dogs were giving us a caning," Murray said.
Then, in 2016, the family decided to buy more land and as part of spreading the risk of the enterprise, they looked at Salmon Gums, where the property Myamba Downs had come on the market.
"We decided to get back into sheep and so we looked for a farm that we could have a livestock component on and one that already had the infrastructure on it," Murray said.
"Myamba was available and it was pretty attractive to us, because it was a well-renowned sheep property that had always produced good livestock."
The purchase of Myamba was the first step in re-establishing Merinos into their farming operation, with the priority placed on sourcing quality genetics as a base.
"When we were running sheep at Cascade we had been buying rams from locals Scott and Sue Pickering, Derella Downs and Pyramid Poll studs and we were really happy with them," Murray said.
"So to get our numbers up we bought in a few lines of ewes and also were able to buy Scott's cast for age ewes.
"We were also lucky enough to be able to buy 1000 ewe hoggets from the Schlink family at Condingup and that provided us with a good base to work from.
"The Schlinks were also clients of Pickerings and produced very nice sheep.
"So that set us on our way and provided us a quality foundation for the flock."
Initially Murray and Julie weren't going to move to Salmon Gums, they were looking to stay in Cascade and put a manager on Myamba.
"But it didn't work out that way and we were spending a lot of time here anyway," Murray said.
"Six months ago we decided we would move here permanently and it has turned into a succession plan of sorts.
"We look after the sheep and the agronomics of this place and the boys run the cropping programs on all three properties."
Murray said while he didn't have a lot of time for sheep when he was younger, getting back into them has ignited a passion for breeding quality wool.
Since 2016 they had built their numbers up to about 5000 head but then the 2019 season hit and a lack of rain and the late start to the growing season led to the sell off of a large numbers of ewes.
"We went from running 5000 sheep at Christmas time to about 1720 currently," Murray said.
"Unusually for this area we had no summer rain, so we were short on water and feed until late June/early July when we did get good rain.
"Around February I made the decision to sell sheep off because I didn't have a good feeling about the season.
"All the dry sheep went first and then we sold about 500 ewes prior to lambing.
"I have just been through them again and another 500 ewes went in early July.
"While it is disappointing to see these sheep go out the gate, we still have the best of our ewes which gives us a nucleus flock that we can use to rebuild for future years."
Murray said the ewes that were left were top quality and it was important for him to be able to hold that number now.
"The biggest thing was keeping the genetics in place," he said.
"We have made a significant investment in genetics over the years and I didn't want that to go completely.
"With the ewe lambs and hoggets coming on it will give us a couple of thousand ewes to mate for next year and so it won't take long to build the flock up again."
Murray said this year had taught them lessons about running sheep in Salmon Gums and they would change the make up of their flock in the future.
"I think from now on we will keep the very best of our ewes and then run a transient dry flock so we can handle the variations of the season better," he said.
"When we get a good season or good summer rain we will buy in wether lambs and fatten them and sell them to WAMMCO, or run them through and sell them as older wethers after getting a few wool clips off them.
"I think we are probably better off not becoming too attached to 50 per cent of the sheep we run.
"We got caught out a bit this year because we had made such an investment in our sheep and had them at a point where I was really happy with them, that I tried to hang onto more than perhaps we should have.
"In the end it worked out OK and we were lucky we sold off ewes when we did and we also got really good money for them, so that certainly helps.
"At least now the farm can recover and we can build feed supplies up for next year when we increase the ewe numbers.
"I think some years we are going to be able to run 4000 or 5000 sheep, but other years we will need to accept the fact that we are going to have to tone it down and just run 2000 ewes and lambs and sit tight.
"We want to have that flexibility and that is why we will look to run more dry sheep.
"On the same token, if you are going to run sheep up here you need a cropping component as well - they do complement each other."
In terms of where their ewe flock is currently at, Murray and Julie are keen to get on with the rebuild.
"We shore some white tag ewe hoggets and ewe lambs recently and they were just so consistent in their wool, it was pleasing to see," Murray said.
Such is the wool growth they are getting, a move is being made to shear every eight months.
"The staple was getting too long at 12 months," Murray said.
"We want to simplify things a bit, we were shearing the ewes in September and then all the wethers in January, so we have decided to shear everything every eight months."
The sheep enterprise is also fitting in well with the cropping side of the operation.
The canola program goes in at Cascade and then Munglinup and then the seeding rigs go back to Cascade to sow the cereals and, depending on moisture, they head back to Munglinup to do the cereals there and then everything moves to Salmon Gums.
"We don't want to sow up here before the third week of May, primarily because of frost and that is where the sheep work in well," Murray said.
"They minimise the risk of frost, because basically we are sowing into pasture all the time and we don't have the heavy stubble loads.
"Sheep also sort out weed control better on this property.
"We are trying to grow crops more cost effectively up here and the sheep allow us to do that.
"There is not really a good value legume or break crop that will work here and sheep give us that value, particularly at current prices."
Not a lot of work has been done on pasture renovation as yet, as they have used the first few years of having the property to really clean paddocks up.
"We grow a lot of oats here and we use them as a cleaning crop and they are also beneficial to run the sheep on," Murray said.
"There is a portion of the farm that has medics on it, which we are using, but basically we are planting oats and vetches for extra sheep feed."
In terms of their foray back into sheep, Murray and Julie said thanks to a bit of luck they had timed it quite well.
"When we got back into it, prices were just starting to rise," Murray said.
"I think we bought some sheep for about $50 at the time and within eight months they were worth $100.
"We were also fortunate to be able to buy in some quality ewes, like the Schlink hoggets and that certainly made it easier for us to build the quality in the flock quickly.
"The future of sheep is encouraging, carcase values are at record levels and while wool prices have dropped recently, they are still very good so I don't think there has been a better time to be in sheep than now."
