FARMING and Merinos are in the blood of the Gent family that has been farming at Trayning for 110 years.
The family acquired the property in 1911 and today Owen and Elaine Gent operate the farm alongside Owen's brother Roland and their three sons Paul, Murray, and Michael, who are all involved in the farm to varying degrees.
Owen and Roland's grandparents Arthur and Eliza Gent along with their four sons Percy, Reginald, Cecil and Arthur-Edward took up the property which was initially a 400 hectare bush block and before it was taken over by Cecil and Arthur in 1923.
Percy and Reginald were both killed in World War 1.
Over the years the family has added to the original home block and they now have 8000 hectares along with an additional 1500ha of neighbouring land they lease.
Like most Wheatbelt farming operations, this one is weighted heavily towards grain production, cropping 6500ha, but there is still a place for sheep and the Merino breed on the farm.
Owen Gent said they liked running Merinos because of their dual-purpose nature.
"You can produce both a saleable meat product and also a wool clip," Mr Gent said.
He said both their sheep and cropping programs pulled their weight in terms of performance and that having both was a great way to diversify their enterprise.
"We believe you need to have both in your program," Mr Gent said.
"I wouldn't like to be only cropping because the risk of a bad year is too great.
"Having the Merino flock in the system certainly gives us a bit of insurance if the year isn't great for cropping."
The Gents currently have 1880 Merino breeding ewes, 600 ewe hoggets and 1800 lambs on the property and they won't be reducing these numbers any time soon.
The sheep numbers have been maintained at similar levels over the years, but the additional land has allowed them to experiment with their cropping program which includes wheat, barley, canola, lupins and oats.
The majority of the Gents ewes are joined to Merino rams sourced from the Kolindale stud at Dudinin but they also mate a small number of their older ewes to White Suffolks to produce a prime lamb they can turn off quickly for a bit of extra cash-flow.
They have been using the Kolindale bloodline for nearly 25 years, having purchased rams from the stud's previous owners Colin and Rae Lewis, before they sold it to the Ledwith family.
Mr Gent said even though the stud had changed ownership, the bloodline hadn't changed.
"The Ledwiths have continued to breed a similar style of Merino to that which Colin bred but Luke Ledwith has also continued to improve it over the years," he said.
"We aim to breed a Merino with a plain body, large frame and free flowing 19-21 micron wool and we buy our rams accordingly.
"Luke does all the classing of the ewes every year and he's done that for a while, and he says he's finding it harder and harder to find a bad one to cull out which is great to hear.
"Our aim is for Luke to take out about 20 per cent of our ewe hoggets every year."
When it comes to culling, the Gents focus on removing the older ewes and usually take out 500 head a year with 300 of the better quality ewes being mated to White Suffolks, while the remaining 200 head are sold.
The breeding program revolves around lambing starting at the beginning of April which means the rams are with the ewes in November for eight weeks.
Their lambing percentage this year was 80pc for the crossbreds and 100pc for the Merinos.
Mr Gent said April lambing was not common in the area as most producers had moved it because of later starts to the season.
"We have decided to stick with the April lambing as it works for us," he said.
This year they achieved a 95pc lambing rate to ewes joined, which Mr Gent said he was pleased with.
"There are a lot of twins around this year, more than what we normally have," he said.
Summer is a busy time, which sees them roll straight into January shearing just after they have finished harvest.
While they don't strive for a particular micron/wool category, the Gent's clip generally averages 17-18 micron for the younger sheep and 19.5-20 micron for the mature flock with their cut on average at about seven kilograms a head for their mature ewes and hoggets.
Mr Gent said rather than focus on a particular micron, they prefer to ensure they are cutting plenty of wool which has style and quality.
This year they sold their wool in May (sale F46) through Elders and averaged 896c/kg greasy or $1526.
The top price for weaners wool of 17.5 micron was 1229c/kg greasy.
"We don't do anything special with the wool side of things in terms of marketing, we just shear and send it to the stores, but if you can top a market you must be doing something right," Mr Gent said.
Along with receiving top prices for their wool this year the Gents were also awarded an Elders Supreme Clip of the Sale award.
They are no strangers to the award, with similar success a handful of years ago.
When it comes to marketing their sheep, Mr Gent said what they sold was dependent on the year and the season - and they didn't chase markets.
"Our objective is to sell the wether lambs once they reach the right age and weight," he said.
"We try to sell our White Suffolks at 12 months of age when they are about 22-24kg dressed weight, which is usually just before harvest.
"Last year we sold some of our sheep over east, but we don't really chase a market here because the seasons vary so much."
Over the past couple of years they have been rewarded with strong values.
This year their wether Merino lambs were sold in April for an average of $160 per head, while the older ewes were sold in March for $149.
Mr Gent said they have been happy to see the market remain steady and strong over the past couple of years.
"We have been really happy with the prices we have received, they are probably the best we have ever seen," Mr Gent said.
In terms of looking after their sheep feed wise, the Gents sow some pasture, while a portion of the lupins, oats and barley from the cropping program was retained for supplementary feeding.
Also depending on the year the Gents will either buy in or grow their own hay for sheep feed.
"We don't always grow hay, sometimes we have to buy it if the years are not good enough," he said.
The early rainfall this year has seen a reduction on hand feeding but despite the better season, they have continued to fill up their lick feeders with a mix of lupins, barley and oats so the sheep have extra feed on offer if they want it.
For their supplementary feeding program they mainly use their own grain but in the past they have bought in Milne Feeds EasyOne pellets for something different.
Mr Gent said 2020 was a great year for both the crops and sheep following an ordinary season in 2019.
"The past five years haven't been too bad, we haven't had droughts like other people have had," he said.
"Since we started leasing the extra 1500ha of land 11 years ago, we have only had one bad year, so they have been consistent."
To reclaim the salty soils they have across the farm, 12 years ago a 17.6 kilometre drain was constructed by a contractor and included laying culverts under two roads.
"Although this involved many hours of meetings and approvals we find the exercise was justified as we have reclaimed around 200ha of croppable land," he said.
With seeding starting earlier these days, coupled with below average rainfall, Mr Gent said it was important to work with the seasons rather than adhering to a strict program.
"You have to work the seasons now, you can't farm like you used to, everything is a lot earlier and you have to make sure the rain falls on the crop," Mr Gent said.
"You're always spraying, if you're not spraying for weeds you're putting on nitrogen or nutrients back onto the crops."
The average rainfall has decreased from 300-350mm to below 280mm a year on the Gent's property.
"I still remember when it used to get wet and we would get bogged in the paddocks, but that doesn't happen now," Mr Gent said.
As for the 2021 season, so far they have received 188mm of rainfall, which has established plenty of green feed.
Of that 51mm was received in May and 33mm in April.
Going forward Mr Gent said he was happy with where things were at and was not looking to any major changes.
"We are getting the results from what we do, so we are not looking to change anything," he said.
