WORKING with livestock has been a lifelong passion for Lyn Mathwin and over the past 35 years Merinos have formed a big part of her farming life at Kojonup.
Before going down the farming path she was a veterinarian about 20 years, practising in clinics at Waroona, Victoria and Katanning.
Ms Mathwin has always been around livestock - even from a young age living on the outskirts of Perth when her father used to run cattle.
Today Ms Mathwin runs 1300 Merino breeding ewes on 880 hectares with her husband Dave Mathwin which they acquired from Dave's uncle, nearly 35 years ago, trading as Barrule Grazing.
They would like to be running more Merino ewes but their flock size is down after the past few seasons have been tough.
"Merinos have always been on this property and have worked well for us," Ms Mathwin said.
"I really like the quality of the wool that the Merino produces and we are always trying to improve it in our flock.
"Wool is the major focus of our operation, the meat side of the Merino to us is more of a bonus."
The Mathwins aim to breed a plain-bodied, growthy Merino carrying a heavy cutting, low micron fleece.
"We are aiming for an 18 to 18.5 micron wool and a six kilogram cut," she said.
"Last time I did a benchmark of our flock in 2019 we were above average for wool cut in the area which was really pleasing to see as we have had a real focus on increasing our cut.
"Our aim currently is to continue increasing our wool cut and also increase our frame size while maintaining our wool at about 18 micron."
To help achieve these goals, the Mathwins source their rams from the Scaddan-based Wattledale stud which has a focus on producing high performance rams.
Ms Mathwin said they have been using this bloodline for many years.
"We started on it when the stud was based in Kojonup and when it was sold to the Vandenberghe family at Scaddan we continued to buy from them," she said.
When it comes to ram selection, Ms Mathwin said they focused on buying rams which had Australian Sheep Breeding Values.
She said selecting replacement ewes for the breeding flock was just as important as selecting the right rams.
"We go through all the ewe hoggets before shearing in spring and keep about 70pc of the drop as replacements," Ms Mathwin said.
In terms of their older ewes they also go through them each year, ensuring they are in good condition to have another lamb.
"In general we keep the ewes through to about five years old as long as they are capable of carrying a lamb," she said.
Lambing is at the start of winter when the paddock feed is well established and as a result the rams are put out with the ewes in January.
The rams go in with the ewes for six weeks at two per cent.
Ms Mathwin said they liked the later lambing as there was plenty of green feed available for the ewes when they needed it most in terms of milk production.
"With the good green feed, the ewes milk better resulting in the lambs being bigger going into summer," Ms Mathwin said.
After joining, all the ewes are pregnancy scanned - a practice they have done for 10 years.
Any ewes that are dry at scanning or lose their lambs are sold to ensure the operation is keeping up the fertility in the flock.
When it comes to lambing, the ewes lamb down in two mobs and they are rotated between six paddocks which all have good amounts of shelter.
Ms Mathwin said they used the most sheltered paddocks on the property and that seemed to work.
"Usually the ones that are still lambing stay at the back and the ones that haven't lambed go first and wander through those paddocks," she said.
This system works well for the operation with it regularly achieving good lambing percentages.
Last year it achieved a lambing rate of 100pc on mated figures and they hope to match that figure again this year.
With wool the main focus of the business, shearing is done on the property in October, with all the ewes and lambs shorn at this time.
Last year the wool clip averaged 17 micron due to the tough season and returned a top price of 1685c/kg greasy for some hogget wool.
Ms Mathwin said despite a downturn in the wool market due to the COVID-19 pandemic, wool prices were not too bad now and the outlook for the market was again positive with prices on the rise.
"We had some good sales last year, we held back our wool clip because of COVID-19 and that has worked well," she said.
When it comes to marketing wethers, the Mathwins carry them through to hogget age and in the past two years they have been sold to processors, but prior to that they were sold to live exporters.
"We used to target the export market with our wethers but that isn't as accessible as it used to be," she said,
In terms of their surplus ewe hoggets, they are sold in November at the Elders Kojonup Special Ewe Sale, while they sell their mutton in November/December to WAMMCO.
All surplus sheep are sold prior to January, so less stock is carried over the summer.
In 2019 their ewe hoggets made $151 in the sale and last year they sold for $178.
While the wool market has been down over the past 18 months, mainly due to the pandemic, Ms Mathwin said meat values had been particularly good.
"We can't complain about the prices we have been getting for our sheep lately," she said.
"They are really strong and probably the best we have ever seen."
Season wise, the past three years have been incredibly challenging for the Mathwins but this year is looking much more positive given the strong rainfall.
Ms Mathwin said it felt and looked like it was spring with the amount of feed available.
So far they have had 243 millimetres of rain which has already surpassed the annual amounts for the past five years.
"Our average rainfall for the area is 500mm but we have been nowhere near that in the past few years," Ms Mathwin said.
"It's been really dry which has made it a real challenge in terms of both stock feed and water supplies, but the Merinos have stood up well."
Last year with the lack of rainfall they still had to supplement feed for an extended period of time.
"It was definitely longer than normal," Ms Mathwin said.
"I was comparing photos from this year to last year and it was still dry last year, the rain has made such a big difference.
"This year by May 23 we already had great pasture establishment and growth."
As a result of the dry seasons, one of the major improvements the couple has made recently is to the water system.
They have put in a property-wide pipeline system and a huge tank to stop evaporation and as a result Ms Mathwin said they could put nearly the whole farm on troughs now to supplement the dam supply.
"This pipeline system is cost-effective and more efficient after having to cart water for the past two years," she said.
With the Merinos paying dividends, the Mathwins are looking at getting a sheep handler to help make life easier, and make some upgrades to the shearing shed, as well as continuing to improve their pastures, by planting another two paddocks of perennial grasses this year.
Ms Mathwin said 30pc of the property was already perennial grasses and lucerne.
"We're just increasing that gradually during the good seasons, we already have the seed so hopefully it will dry out and we can seed it," she said.
In conjunction with their Merinos, the Mathwins also have a small cropping program of barley and oats, which is mostly grown for supplementary sheep feed and they run 60 Angus breeders based on Ardcairnie bloodlines which they hope to build up to 100 breeders when the seasons improve.
The oats and barley is trail-fed and the operation has also sown perennial pastures to provide a good base.
For further sheep feed hay is brought in to fill the feed gap during the drier seasons.
