MATT Dougan had only 40 hectares left to harvest when the front of his header broke in the second week of December.
Speaking to Farm Weekly, Mr Dougan said it was just one of the many hiccups he had experienced throughout harvest, working on a cropping and sheep farm at Williams.
"We had a couple of breakdowns over harvest, had a few hoses go, broke a knife and did a clutch on the truck, so when you combine that with the cool mornings and harvest bans - it's definitely drawn the season out a bit." Mr Dougan said.
After getting the parts and fixing the header, Mr Dougan finished on December 12.
Working alongside Robert Rose, who took over his family farm in 2015, the two have shared the farm's workload for the past four years.
"I do the harvesting and seeding, Robbie does most of the pre-emergent spraying and throughout the season we work out who is on the boomsprayer," Mr Dougan said.
This year wasn't a very big program with about 360 hectares of crops in, made up of 80ha of Planet barley, 30ha of Williams oats and the rest being Bannister oats.
The farm had a late start with no decent summer rains and, as a result, there was no real subsoil moisture.
"Because of the late start, we put most of our program in dry at the start of June, apart from the last 30 hectares of Williams oats, which was put in after a good rain in late June," Mr Dougan said.
"I think it really showed with the chemicals, as they didn't get on top of things the way they
potentially could have had it been wet enough.
"Of course they've done something, there's no doubt about that, but there are some really grassy, dirty looking crops, and I've seen a lot of that around Williams, so I think it's just the year."
Receiving an average amount of rainfall, Mr Dougan said the main issue this season was the timing of the rain.
"The rainfall wasn't too bad, it was just that it came late," Mr Dougan said.
"We were hoping for a little bit more before things started haying off, but unfortunately we just watched the clouds go around us."
The farm had a couple of spits of rain over harvest, but nothing like previous years where they had to park the header up.
Mr Dougan said the cold mornings and nights had made things a bit tougher, especially when harvesting the oats.
"You aren't starting as early and you're pulling up a bit earlier," Mr Dougan said.
Compared to last year, farm yields were up this year with the barley going three tonnes per hectare and the oats nudging 2.5t/ha.
"There were some really great sections of paddocks and some not so good, and I think that's due to lack of moisture really, especially on the sandy country," he said.
"Some blokes around the area really pump money into their crops and because of that they might be going 4-5t/ha."
With the potential to have a larger cropping program, the farm also has about 5000 breeding ewes, with that number quite consistent over the years.
Having a self-replacing stock, shearing mainly occurs in mid to late October.
"There's a small stud which we've just used for ourselves and the wethers are ready for the boat, so they'll get shorn and then get sent." Mr Dougan said.
"We aren't worried about summer feed, there's plenty of tucker that could potentially be put into more cropping paddocks.
"Regularly we feed sheep with lupins and barley, moreso just to keep up their condition because the quality of feed isn't always there.
"But there will be plenty of feed come the end of summer."
Mr Dougan said the property had fairly good stubble retention, with more stubble in the paddocks compared to this time last year.
"None of the stubble paddocks went in this year, so everything was put into pasture, "Mr Dougan said.
"Two of those paddocks were virgin, which was interesting, as it was very tight ground to break up, especially with no rain, but it was a fairly good crop for what it was.''
In the farms breeding program they look for sheep that are clean around the face and breech.
"We lamb around June - that would be the very first drop and then it's fairly staggered," Mr Dougan said.
"The stud ewes usually lamb about two to three weeks before the rest of them".
With the farm's lambing percentage a little down compared to last year, at around 100 per cent, Mr Dougan said they still had pretty good numbers, with a lot of twins.
The farm tried non-mulesed sheep in 2009, which Mr Dougan said caused them nothing but problems.
"They were harder to work with and harder to keep clean and look after," he said.
"So after that experience we've kept with mulesed sheep."
The farm aims for the 19 micron wool and has about 800 White Suffolk cross Merinos that will be used for live export.
Mr Dougan said he thought it was worthwhile to run livestock while cropping.
"One hand washes the other," he said.
A fourth-generation farmer, Mr Dougan's great grandfather pioneered dirt at Kondinin, in the early 1900s, establishing sheep and cropping farm, Palomar, in 1912.
Mr Dougan's grandfather developed the farm and his uncle runs it today.
"I worked on the farm for five or six years, then went up north for a little bit and managed a cattle station in the Pilbara," Mr Dougan said.
After returning to Perth and spending some time there, he went to Williams to help Mr Rose manage the farm.
At the time of writing, Mr Dougan was hoping to complete some other harvest contracts, preferably close to home in Williams.
Saving his money from his contract jobs to one day fulfil his dream of buying his own sheep and cropping farm, Mr Dougan said he loved the farming lifestyle.
"I like seeing what you get out of the land after all of your efforts," he said
"The satisfaction you get after a hard day's work and finishing a job - that's what keeps you going.
"I'm not sure when I'll have my own farm, but hopefully soon."
