MURRAY Greys continue to perform at Bremer Bay for Julie Leenhouwers and her partner Greg Lee.
Ms Leenhouwers and Mr Lee run their Murry Grey herd on their 1133 hectare property which they lease from Ms Leenhouwers father, Joe.
Ms Leenhouwers is the second generation to farm and has been back farming on the property with Mr Lee for nineteen years.
Due to the farm being located in a wetter region, cropping has never been an option so livestock has been run on the farm.
The benefit of having a purely livestock program means that both Ms Leenhouwers and Mr Lee are able to work off-farm, with Mr Lee sub contracting grain carting during harvest time and Ms Leenhouwers doing the occasional wool classing Job.
The family originally ran a large feedlot which saw 8000 head of cattle being put through each year.
Ms Leenhouwers and Mr Lee returned to the farm managing the feedlot but after a few years closed it down and it has been shut for 15-16 years now.
They first started breeding their own cattle when a local farmer who had Droughtmaster cattle sold his farm.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to breed their own cattle they bought 50 head of Droughtmasters from the farmer and the bull came with the herd.
The Droughtmasters were joined with an Angus bull.
After running Droughtmaster/Angus for seven years they switched to Murray Greys and now have 90 breeders.
Ms Leenhouwers said she likes the Murray Grey breed because they have a great temperament and because they seem to perform really well on their country.
Their genetics are sourced from Kurt Wise's Southend stud, Katanning and they have been selecting bulls from the stud for six to seven years.
"The bulls that we have bought from Mr Wise have stood up very well, which was good to see in this area because Katanning and Bremer Bay are worlds apart in terms of environment," Ms Leenhouwers said.
Joining of heifers is in early May and the cows are mated in June, to ensure the heifers have finished calving before the cows.
Calving for the heifers begins in February and the cows start in March.
"In terms of calving ease the females usually don't require much assistance," Ms Leenhouwers she said.
Instead of pregnancy scanning, they keep detailed records of the cows at calving with any cows that doesn't have a calf the first time round getting a second chance before being culled if they are not in calf or lose a calf another time.
When growing out the calves Ms Leenhouwers said they don't do anything special, they just put them on pasture paddocks and let them grow until they are ready to be sold.
The calves are generally sold in January/February at 10 months of age and through the Mount Barker Regional Saleyards.
By the time the cattle are being sold they generally average 300 to 320 kilograms and they have been returning good money, but Ms Leenhouwers said that in the current market conditions you can make exceptional dollars per kilogram for any weight.
When selling through the saleyards Ms Leenhouwers said that most of their cattle were ideal for lotfeeders and usually sell to local operations.
As for the market, Ms Leenhouwers said that it has been very strong and they have been receiving some excellent prices.
In conjunction with the cattle, they also run a total of 2000 head of sheep, which are Merinos and Dohnes.
Of the flock, 1500 are mated ewes and 500 are ewe lamb replacements.
The ewes are joined in December for a lambing to begin in mid-May.
When it comes to the genetics they use in their sheep flock, they are sourced from local studs including the King family's Warralea Poll Merino stud, Gairdner and the Parson family's Kintail Park Dohne stud, Jerramungup.
Ms Leenhouwers said they have been using Kintail Park bloodlines for a long time and she even used to do some of the wool classing for the stud 20 years ago.
The main focus of the sheep enterprise is on wool and selling into the fine wool market.
Shearing is on a six to eight month basis, with their latest shearing done in October last year.
All going well and if the sheep have enough wool on them, they will look to be shorn again at the end of March, if not shearing can be pushed out until well after lambing.
The sheep carry 17.5-18 micron wool and Ms Leenhouwers said the market prices have been very strong.
The 2021 season provided some reprieve following a couple of drought years lasting from 2018 to 2020.
Rain began falling in August of 2020 and continued through until late 2021, filling up all of their dams which they rely on as their water source for the livestock.
Luckily just prior to the break of the season they had cleaned out all of their dams.
The average rainfall for the area is around 450mm but has increased to be well above that for the 2021 season.
The cattle are usually on a strictly grassfed diet but much like many other producers during the drought, they had to buy in hay for additional feed.
"We are lucky that our pasture growth is strong and there is usually an abundance of feed available," Ms Leenhouwers said.
As for the sheep, some of the paddocks are locked up for the sheep to rotate onto.
Ms Leenhouwers said both the livestock operations complement each other well.
"We don't usually keep the cows and sheep in the same paddock but if we need to we can put some sheep underneath the cattle to eat down the grass if there is too much," she said.
As for the future, Ms Leenhouwers said they are happy with where they are and will aim to maintain current numbers.
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