DEVOTED Angus cattle producers Alison and Ric Wheatley first started farming together in 1984 and in 1986 they bought a property at Winnejup and haven't looked back since.
Ric is from a farming background, with his family farm located on the other side of Bridgetown.
Alison was a physiotherapist in Perth and then Manjimup prior to moving to the farm with Ric, however her father had farmed the family farm alone in his early years.
The Wheatleys have recently downsized their operation, having sold one of their properties to go from 719ha to 480ha.
"It's a lot of work and we're getting older, Ric has just turned 65, and we wanted to do a few other things so we decided to start downsizing," Alison said.
"It gives us a bit more freedom to do what we want".
The Wheatleys run 320 Angus breeders, but did get up to running 500 breeders at one point.
They started out as a sheep and cattle enterprise but struggled as they weren't quite big enough to do both properly so they chose to specialise in cattle.
Once the decision was made they gradually reduced their sheep flock and increased their cattle numbers.
"We got out of sheep because I didn't really like sheep and in 2006 we had such a bad season that we sold the rest of our sheep to reduce stocking pressure on our land, and over the next few years gradually increased our cattle numbers," Ric said.
"Sheep may have been better money, but they were more work and we like our cows.
"I think it is fair to say, one thing we will miss when we eventually retire is the cows, we've got such a good line of beautiful cattle," Alison said.
Calving occurs in May-June and the Wheatleys aim to sell their calves weaned at six to seven months of age when they are about 300 to 320 kilograms.
All of their calves are yard weaned for a minimum of seven days where they are handled at least twice daily and then they are backgrounded until sale.
"They often go to repeat buyers who either background them or put them straight into feedlots," Ric said.
"We have also exported heifers live to China."
The Wheatleys like the Angus breed for its temperament and marketable traits.
"They're just very versatile and if a market folds up they'll fit into another market, whereas quite often with other breeds they seem to be more market specific," Ric said.
"The Angus seems to hit any market whereas a lot of the others just don't."
Alison said when selecting their bulls calving ease was the first thing they looked at, along with growth rates.
"Fertility and milk are very important figures too as we have a self -replacing herd," she said.
"Also, the mature cow weight has got to be low, if they get too big they're too hard to maintain."
Ric said with smaller cows, they could run a few more head.
When sourcing their bulls the Wheatleys purchase 70-80 per cent of them from the Ardcairnie Angus stud at Kojonup.
"Jim and Pam McGregor produce excellent bulls that are run under similar conditions to our cattle," Alison said.
The Wheatleys are very happy with their bulls and love dealing with Jim and Pam.
They are achieving a high calving percentage.
"It varies, but it would be close to 90pc - we only mate cows for nine weeks, three cycles and heifers for six weeks, two cycles," Ric said.
The females are joined at the end of July and the Wheatleys are strict with their cows.
"If they don't get pregnant in that time then they're gone.
"You don't get a second chance around here and anything lame or aggressive doesn't get kept," Alison said.
To ensure their herd is always heading in the right direction the Wheatleys keep detailed records.
They purchased a Trutest XR3000 indicator back in 2005 and when they sell their cattle they check the notes section and if there is anything wrong with them they are out.
As for the past season, it has been difficult with false breaks and a lack of rain.
"It has been one of the worst seasons - we had two or three false breaks and we are looking like half our farm could run out of water, it's lucky we have a big gully dam which we put in in 1988 which helps drought proof the farm," Alison said.
"But on the west side of the farm, all our paddock dams didn't fill up," Ric said.
The Wheatleys received 435 millimetres last year - down from their average of 650mm.
"Compared to Bridgetown our average isn't very high that's about 700-800mm but it's all relative to where you are," Ric said.
The tough season saw the Wheatleys reseeding some of their crops.
"The whole season has been pretty ordinary, especially with all the reseeding that we'd done, like all the ryegrass and clover that came up then died," Alison.
"We ended up with poor pasture because of it."
As a result of the challenging conditions, the Wheatleys had to sell some of their cattle earlier than usual.
"We normally don't sell until January," Ric said.
They sold 93 steers in early December with a further 59 sold a week later and sold their heifers in early January.
At this stage they still have 60 weaners but will see how the season goes before deciding when to sell them.
"We were just trying to get them off the place, as we can see that we're not going to be able to feed them or have access to enough water for them," Alison said.
"We just love our Black Angus cattle, we will definitely miss them when we finally retire."