IF retirement is about doing what you want, then Dawson Bradford said he "retired the day he left school".
The third-generation Narrogin farmer was humbled to have earned one of the country's top gongs in the Queen's Birthday Honours - as a recipient of a medal in the general division of the Order of Australia for his service to the livestock industry.
"I do something that I love because I want to do it, not because I have to," the 76-year-old said.
"I am very happy with what we are doing and have no intention of retiring because I don't want to do anything else.
"My satisfaction comes from the results we have achieved and I couldn't have done it without my wife Greta's support."
Mr Bradford's recognition followed more than 50 years of dedication to the agricultural sector, which includes serving as the chairman of the Australian Poll Dorset Association (1985-1987), LAMBEX (2010) and the Western Australian Meat Market Co-operative (2000-2016).
He was also a founding member of Meat Elite Australia 1988 and has been a member of the University of Western Australia's Institute of Agriculture Advisory Board since 2015.
Mr Bradford grew up on a small property north-west of Narrogin, where his parents Stan and Rita ran a mixed-farm of sheep, cropping and pigs.
He was destined for a life on the land, driving a tractor from the age of 10 and trucks two years later.
"Nothing has changed," he said.
"Greta and I still work six to seven days a week because we enjoy it."
Mr Bradford's interest in lamb production started when he left school at 16 years old.
While that was some six decades ago, he recalled sitting at the kitchen table, looking through the window at the foundation for a Poll Dorset stud his father had purchased.
"I remember admiring these sheep and wondering what we could do with them," Mr Bradford said.
"My dad wasn't well when I left school, so I came back and worked on the farm, which was what I wanted to do anyway.
"You would have had to restrain me in some way to keep me off the farm."
Mr Bradford went on to work on the family farm for five years, before his father helped him purchase a small acreage next-door, Hillcroft Farms.
The land was rundown and not well developed, so a then 21-year-old Mr Bradford had limited income.
But it was the opportunity he so desperately wanted and needed to get started.
He started with 700 sheep, but couldn't carry them, so ended up borrowing a paddock from his father to keep him going.
"We had to crop to sow clovers and get the soil going again," Mr Bradford said.
"The crops weren't very productive but it was what we had to do to get established.
"That was for feed, as well as to build the nitrogen in the soil because we didn't have access to nitrogen in those days."
After his first year farming, Mr Bradford was not able to meet payments and had to borrow money from his wife's savings.
It was then he said it became obvious that he "had to have more income and had to increase the base".
Through old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears (and pig farming), Mr Bradford was able to rebuild Hillcroft Farms from one shearing shed to the enterprise it is today.
"When I started farming I was going nowhere, I could see that," he said.
"I had no big capital base to work off, so I had to intensify.
"I couldn't spread, I couldn't buy more land because I didn't have the money and that is where pigs served us very well and still do."
But pig farming was not what Mr Bradford planned or wanted to do.
In fact, it was what he least enjoyed about farming.
He even recalled saying to his mother, 'one thing I am sure of is, I am never going to run pigs".
"Pigs in those days were hard work," Mr Bradford said.
"There was a lot of labour, it was all manual with no such thing as automation in conveying feed and there were muddy conditions - you would be up to your knees in mud.
"I have never said never since then because it turned out within a few months of starting farming in my own right I realised I needed extra income and pigs were the one I turned to.
"That's also because I knew them, which was very important."
For Mr Bradford, farming pigs started "involuntarily" with an unsold sow at a clearing sale.
He knew how to run the animal, but he couldn't afford the facilities, which was why he started roaming the pigs free range in bushland.
The pigs would farrow twice a year in the mild months of spring and autumn and, like sheep, were fed grain and protein.
One sow soon became 400 and as the production grew bigger, Mr Bradford realised he didn't have enough bush to house all of the pigs.
That's when a trip to New South Wales inspired him to build A-framed eco-shelters, spread across two-acre paddocks.
For a decade, the pigs were run through to bacon under the shelter system, until Mr Bradford couldn't control their fat and was forced to rethink his strategies.
At the time technology had come into play and farmers were housing and finishing pigs indoors.
So Mr Bradford built his own shed in 1984, which helped with better feed conversion and quality product.
He continued building sheds until he reached 700 sows and started buying weaners from other producers to finish, along with his own.
When told it wasn't a bad achievement for someone, who didn't want to farm pigs he said:
"It is the need to survive and achieve that drives you to go back on your words."
In 2002, tragedy struck the family when Mr Bradford was diagnosed with stomach cancer.
At the time his son was working full time on the farm, having returned home from studying at Marcus Oldham College in 1993.
The diagnosis forced Mr Bradford to pull back for a couple of years and hand over the reins.
"Dawson was ready to take over and manage the place," he said.
"He wanted to increase the piggery (for profitability) so that's what he did.
"We are up to 1400 sows now.
"He runs all of that, as well as the cropping and staff management."
Fortunately Mr Bradford recovered and found his way back to the land.
Today, he and his wife, along with the support of two stockmen, oversee all of the sheep work at Hillcroft Farms and they "love it".
"I have all the care and no responsibility now," Mr Bradford said.
Hillcroft Farm's history with sheep started in 1972, when Mr Bradford bought some Poll Dorsets from over east.
It started as a weekend hobby and a diversion from pig farming.
Until a consultant told Mr Bradford, 'Well you shouldn't have a hobby, you should have a paid hobby, create it as a business if you enjoy it.'
From there the flock number increased and the Bradfords went from winning ribbons at agricultural shows to joining the LAMBPLAN in the 1990s.
"We enjoyed going to shows, but that's all we had at the time to measure performance," Mr Bradford said.
"Joining LAMBPLAN was quite a stimulus because you could see your progress and development."
Spending most of his time in bed while recovering from cancer gave Mr Bradford time to think about how he could develop his flock.
He decided to start crossing developer sheep and made a list of all the qualities he wanted.
They had to be fast growing with good muscle, the right amount of fat, fertility and the ability to breed all year.
So he started crossing the Dorset with two breeds of sheep - the Dorper and Wiltshire Horn.
"I ended up going with the Dorper because they breed all year," Mr Bradford said.
"That developed and we started to get rid of the wool but it was difficult.
"So we went back to the second cross of Dorper."
After some trialling, the Bradfords were able to work their way up to a good performing sheep using LAMBPLAN.
At the moment, they are working on one of the final qualities on their wish list, which is a high fertility in their flock.
It has been no easy feat, but Mr Bradford anticipated it would be completed in one or two years.
"In 2010, we started the breed we initially called Easy Care.
"That was a generic name and obviously as the breed became popular I could see the potential, so we renamed it in 2014 to UltraWhite.
"It is only now that we are starting to really see the results of years of selection.
"It takes seven or eight generations of sheep to at least stabilise and we are getting up to nine or 10 generations now.
"They are stable, we are getting more and more good sheep every year."
Mr Bradford said he used Norwegian gene GDF9 in his flock, which would allow him to increase lambing percentages by 30 per cent and 50pc depending on how fertile the sheep are.
"We are at the stage where we have stabilised the breed and are now building up numbers,'' he said.
"Murdoch University is ready to road test it for me when I have sufficient sheep to do it.
"I'm still learning genetics by what I see and observe and it is definitely rewarding to see the results."
As well as his work with genetics, Mr Bradford labelled serving WAMMCO as chairman as one of his biggest industry achievements.
He was appointed as an interim director to the board transitioning from the former statutory WA Lamb Board to the new WAMMCO in 1999.
In October 2000, he took over as chairman of the financially stressed co-operative with chief executive officer Des Griffiths and a board of six directors.
"When the opportunity came to become a part of the interim board I jumped at it," Mr Bradford said.
"It was a challenge to put a co-operative together because it was so new.
"We had no policies and none of us had experience in that area, it was an immense learning curve."
Mr Bradford said looking back, he was nave to jump on board as chairman of a company that had lost $7 million with no formal business education.
But he was determined to overcome the challenges and rebuild WAMMCO to become a true co-operative principle with integrity and a quality product.
"It took three years to get it into the black again, which was a pretty good achievement," he said.
Another achievement he listed was founding LAMBEX in 2010, which was an event created to help WAMMCO celebrate a decade of its operation.
The idea snowballed, growing into a state event and then a national event, which attracted hundreds of delegates from across the country.
"LAMBEX was started to bring technology to producers," Mr Bradford said.
"So much of research outcomes never see the light of day.
"While they are not applicable to everyone, to the individual there can be some good information in there that stimulates thought and progress.
"The basis of LAMBEX was to bring researchers and farmers together to drive discussion."
Mr Bradford's community achievements were also recognised as a member of the Shire of Cuballing from 1987-2009, of which he also served as deputy shire president from 1991-2005 and the former president and captain of the Cuballing Golf Club.
He said one thing on his resume that stood out to him was "he was usually in things for the long haul."
And he's not wrong, as he has no desire to retire anytime soon.
Mr Bradford and 83 other WA recipients, who were recognised in the 2021 honours list, will be presented with their medals by the Governor-General David Hurley in September.