A STRONG market towards the end of the financial year felt like the perfect time for two different woolgrowers to visit the Australian Wool Network (AWN) wool stores, Bibra Lake, to see their wool off before the sale.
Tambellup wool producers Amy Schlueter and her father Ken, trading as S Gurleen, offered 90 bales in last Thursday's sale.
Ms Schlueter said their offering was a little less than usual (about 105 bales) as in the past couple of years they have restructured their operation and dropped their ewe numbers.
Currently running about 3500 Merinos in total, the family was aiming to build their numbers back up, which Ms Schlueter said would take another two to three years.
They prefer to sell over several months, with last year being over a six to eight-month period.
"We just pick and choose certain lots based on what is in demand," Ms Schlueter said.
"Because the market has lifted a bit at the moment, we decided to float it and we've got our reserves, so if we only sell half that's fine, but if we sell the whole lot, let's take advantage of the price while it's lifted.
"While we don't need to sell everything, it's certainly nice to know that we've got that security."
The sale achieved a 100 per cent clearance of the nine lines of ewe and wether hogget wool offered.
The average net weight per bale was 181 kilograms and achieved an overall average price of 1158 cents per kilogram greasy.
Passionate about the Merino breed for its wool producing qualities, the family sources its rams from the Pooginook Merino stud, based in Jerilderie, New South Wales, favouring the "smaller frame but all about clean, strong, white wool with staple quality".
Ms Schlueter said historically they have produced 19-19.5 micron wool.
"In the past couple of years we have been putting out about 18 micron and even some of our young sheep have been down into the 17s," she said.
"We are quite happy at 19-19.5 micron, but as long as they are consistently producing the type of wool that we want, if the micron drops or increases a little bit with the feed, that doesn't bother us, we just want to maintain the quality of our wool."
In the last week - week 51 of trading - a nine bale line from the Schlueter's of 16.3 micron AAAM, 70.6pc yield, achieved the highest price at 1810c/kg greasy.
This was followed by an eight bale line of 17.2 micron AAAM, 62.5pc yield, 85 millimetres staple length and 43N/kt staple strength, sold for 1559c/kg greasy.
The Schlueters work on a nine-month shearing program after finding it suits the market they target better than shearing every 12 months.
"We found that at 12 months we were pushing too much into the length of the wool and not meeting what the market wanted and our sheep are capable of putting out what the market wanted in nine months," Ms Schlueter said.
Their most recent shearing was done last month, with all of the shearing and most of the crutching done by a local shearing team.
Ms Schlueter said a large wool clip from the recent shearing was down to a good season.
"The past couple of seasons we haven't had opening rains early enough to get feed up while it's still warm, so we have had to supplement feed through winter, or the spring hasn't been there or the weather has shut off and we haven't had the rain to get us a good spring flush," she said.
"The spring flush usually makes all the difference.
"And sometimes if we have had a really wet summer, the break in nutrition ruins all the dry feed, so then again we are having to supplement feed.
"This year we have had a perfect season so far - touch wood and here's hoping it keeps going.
"The problem is when we have a harder season, we have to find a micron, but having more feed we are noticing the micron is starting to pick up a bit, which is fine."
The Schlueter family are running a 50:50 sheep and cropping enterprise, but Ms Schlueter said they plan to increase the sheep side towards 60:40, or maybe 70:30.
"My big push is back to livestock," she said.
"I'm happy to still crop, but the goal is to have more stock, because that's where my passion is and it's also better suited to our soil types.
"So cropping is really there to complement the sheep."
Ms Schlueter is the third generation to carry on the breeding program and said she was proud of the consistency that they have been able to achieve with their wool and sheep production.
From Bignell Farms, Broomehill, Mark Wheeler also attended the AWN wool stores last week.
The business offered four lines of 32 bales in total, with a 100pc clearance achieved.
The sale averaged 1123c/kg greasy, with an average bale net weight of 178kg.
Bignell Farms is more heavily weighted to cropping than sheep, with about a 70:30 ratio.
The business runs about 6000 breeding Merino ewes, which Mr Wheeler said was down a bit than usual.
For Bignell Farms, growing strong sheep with a larger carcase is the focus to target the Eastern-States domestic meat market and it sources its rams from Billandri Merino stud, Kendenup.
Seeing as the focus is more on meat than wool, Mr Wheeler said they don't aim for a specific micron.
"We don't worry too much as long as it's between 19 and 21 micron," Mr Wheeler said.
"We are more focused on the frame of sheep - we focus on the meat side of the sheep and wool is an added bonus."
The top price achieved for Bignell Farms was for a nine bale line of 18.8 micron AAAM, yield 63.5pc, 90mm staple length and 29N/kt staple strength fleece, which sold for 1173c/kg greasy.
Mr Wheeler said they shear the whole flock once a year, which is done in two parts.
"We put crossbred rams over most of our older ewes and anything with a broader wool line, so that we have access to the crossbred market," he said.
"So we shear them in January and then our main shearing is in March/April and we hire contractors to do all of our shearing."
Mr Wheeler said it had been a great start to the season and he was feeling positive.
"We have plenty of sheep feed and the dams are filling up," he said.
"At this stage I'd say that we are understocked, but that can change in the blink of an eye - we'd only need one dry spell for that to happen."
