THE decision by Tammin farmers Tony, Oscar and Simon York, Anameka Farms, to sell a line of ewes on AuctionsPlus last week reaped rewards when the ewes sold for $304, to be possibly the highest price paid for ewes in WA this year.
The Yorks used the AuctionsPlus online platform and prices hovered at $303 before a buyer from New South Wales pushed the price up one dollar to secure the line very late in the sale.
The line consisted of 520, July/August 2018-drop (20 months old), January shorn, AMS bloodline ewes.
The ewes were scanned in lamb to Merino rams, which were joined from February 1 to March 16.
The line for the sale was assessed by Elders Northam agent Lynton Saunders.
Tony York said he wanted to use the AuctionsPlus platform to access the Eastern States' market.
"The prices on AuctionsPlus have been really good lately and we just had confidence in it," Tony said.
High sheep prices are a sign of the times, particularly when compared to prices in the 1990s when the industry hit rock bottom - as it was then that the Yorks were offered 20 cents per head for a line of 800 sheep.
Because of this the Yorks were thrilled to receive such a high price.
The industry has come a long way from those days and is heading in the right direction.
"It is fantastic that the market is so strong," Tony said.
Once driven by wool, the sheep market prices have shifted towards the meat side of the industry.
"It's good, in retrospect, I would have said 20-30 years ago when we got our 20 cents that three quarters of our income came from wool and one quarter came from sheepmeat, now it's about 50:50 or maybe even stronger from the meat side of things," he said.
Tony said the industry was set to remain strong.
"From what I can understand it is still very strong and sheepmeat is going to drive things," he said.
"It is a little disappointing to see wool prices drop, but it can be a very sensitive market and there's always a reason for it to go up and down, so hopefully it is just the COVID-19 issue and then it will go back up."
While the wool side of the industry is struggling Tony said producers were hopeful that the meat side of the market stayed strong for at least another year or two.
"Given the demand that is coming from Eastern Australia, they have a huge amount of restocking to do, so that will keep the market strong in Australia for a long time," he said.
"They received a bit of rain over there so there is a huge demand for sheep at the moment," Simon said.
The farm consists of 13,000 arable hectares and a further 4000ha of land that is not arable.
In addition the Yorks lease 1400ha and of total land holdings 10,000ha is put into crop.
The non-arable land is mostly salt-affected land and has been planted with Anameka saltbush for grazing.
The York family has been in the Tammin area for 111 years after Tony and Simon's grandfather moved out to their home farm in 1909.
"We have been here ever since, so all our lives and we're the third generation to farm" Tony said.
For the Yorks, the focus is on the grain side of the business and the sheep enterprise is to support the cropping program.
"Really it's a grain farm, despite the sheep numbers being so high, the business is really a cropping farm with sheep enterprise supporting the cropping program,"
In total the Yorks run a Merino ewe flock of 6900 head.
"That's where we are at the moment but we have been building the flock up a bit," Tony said.
The Yorks also have a small number of Awassi fat tails, which are mated with older Merino ewes to go into the live sheep trade.
"Effectively we are turning off as many lambs as we can, we are just keeping ewe lambs to breed the self-replacing ewe flock," Tony said.
The majority of their wether lambs are live exported at six to eight months of age.
Joining occurs in February to March, with lambing in July/August.
"If things go well we can wean the lambs, put them on lupin stubbles and turn them off in January/February," Tony said.
"We also keep some grain such as lupins on the farm to supplementary feed the sheep," Simon said.
When sourcing rams, the Yorks use AMS bloodlines, as well as Ashley Hobbs Ingle stud, Brookton.
"We do breed a lot of our own rams, so we have a stud of our own and breed internally.
"We objectively measure all the ewe hoggets and the rams," Tony said.
Like most farmers across WA the Yorks found the past season to be particularly challenging.
"Last year we had a very poor year it's not our worst but it was a big shock to us," he said.
"It was very dry as I'm sure was the case for most people."
The dry season saw the Yorks produce half of the tonnage they produced the previous year.
"It's taking a bit to digest, the sheep are good but they are not going to make up for that kind of drop in grain production," Tony said.
Despite this he is optimistic for the coming season and believes the industry will remain strong through these uncertain times.
"We know that even with whatever is happening in the world people still need food, woollen jumpers and other essentials that farmers provide, so I think we are in the right business," Tony said.
AuctionsPlus recorded 311 views and 48 favourites for the York's line of sheep, which were offered in Tuesday's national sheep sale that had an overall offering of 16,262 head (offered in 75 lots).
The line sold $54 above the reserve and according to AuctionsPlus only buyers from the Eastern States competed on the lot.
