IT can be hard finding a whole family that shares the same passion for a particular industry.
For the Gillams and O'Briens, this is a reality, as they are true Merino lovers.
Third-generation farmers Andrew Gillam and his sister, Sally O'Brien, farm side by side since they took over the property Irwin House 15 years ago, when parents Rob and Ros retired to Port Denison.
Having both studied agriculture business management at the Muresk Institute, Mr Gillam admits that it has been very "beneficial" in terms of implementing his knowledge back on the farm.
Accompanying them at Gabyon Pastoral Company is Andrew's wife Debbie, and their two children Laura and Matthew and Sally's husband Danny and their children Mitch and Brooke - who is a teacher in the local area.
Darren Ganter, David (DK) Konkoly and Hans Samuel complete the team.
All long-term employees, they have spent anything from eight to 51 years with the family, assisting in various farming operations.
Parents Rob and Ros still remain actively interested in the property with Rob generally visiting three to four times a week to help out and he is a great source of experience.
The family property was originally settled in 1849 and named after the Irwin River that flows through 15 kilometres of the farm.
The Gillam family purchased the property in 1936 as a 5666 hectare block.
Andrew and Sally's grandparents John and Lynette Gillam moved to Irwin House from Gabyon Station in 1946.
The family continued to own and operate the station along with other Murchison properties until 2009.
Over the years their children, Andrew and Sally's father Robert and his brother Chris began managing the farm, expanding to 12,950 hectares until dividing the farm in 1997.
Irwin House now covers a total of 14,125 hectares plus 805 hectares leased and is home to more than 9000 Merino breeding ewes.
"We run Merinos because we've always known them to be productive," Mr Gillam said.
"We have always loved the dual income and that you can get a profit from both wool and meat.
"We get good productivity in terms of meat sheep production."
The Gillams experimented with shedding breeds in the late 2000s but admitted that it was very "short-lived".
"The work requirements versus the productivity wasn't enough to keep going with them," Mr Gillam said.
"We found that the work wasn't significantly less, which is why we experimented with them to begin with, and the productivity we got from the Merinos was definitely better."
Today the family's breeding flock sees 4500 ewes joined to Merino rams while the remaining 50 per cent are joined to Poll Dorset rams.
"We join half the mob to Poll Dorsets because they produce a quicker finishing lamb which gives us a fast turnover," Mr Gillam said.
The family believes it is currently breeding its ideal Merino ewe.
"We tend to look for an animal with a large frame, moderately plain body and something with a micron figure of 20.5, which is what we are currently sitting at," Mr Gillam said.
"We are trying to reduce our wrinkle, and we are currently in the process of producing a more plain sheep, while maintaining our wool cut."
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For the past 20 years, Seven Oaks South Poll Merino rams have serviced the enterprise.
Mr Gillam usually selects their rams by using both figures and visual appraisal.
"I like to select a ram with a big frame, good crimp definition and well-nourished wool to put over my ewes," he said.
For the past 40 years the Gillams have been using fleece weighing and objective fleece measurement to assist in the classing of their replacement rams and ewe hoggets.
Inside the gates of Irwin House is a mob of 500 ewes that make up a nucleus flock.
The nucleus flock acts as an internal stud and all offspring are retained and stay on the farm as breeders.
As a result, only two to three Merino rams are selected each year to serve the flock.
The family generally joins ewes in early January for a June lambing period.
Post lambing, 2000 replacement ewes are kept.
Lambs are weaned in December onto fresh lupin stubbles and standing fodder crops, the process consists of the lambs being drafted off the ewes, given a drench and vaccinated.
"The idea is to wean lambs straight onto high quality feed," Mr Gillam said.
To begin with, the Gillams were traditionally shearing in August with a June lambing.
"Two years ago we wanted to put lambing back by two weeks after several years of heavy supplementary feeding," he said.
"At the same time we also started the shift to an eight-month shearing cycle."
At this stage the family noticed that both changes seemed to be working well with sheep holding condition and very good lambing rates for the last two seasons.
"We did several seasons of pregnancy scanning, however since changing our cycle we haven't managed to fit it in but it is something we are keen to get back to," Mr Gillam said.
"We used to join our ewes in December but due to the change in shearing it was hard to fit scanning to the list of jobs we already have.
"We would be keen to do it again but we are just trying to figure out how to make it work."
While they are only two years into the eight-month shearing cycle, the Gillams are very pleased with the results they're getting.
"I believe we are seeing a significant improvement in the condition of our sheep," he said.
The family markets its wool through Nutrien Wool and Mr Gillam said prices were OK at the moment.
"We are happy with them but we always like it to be a fraction higher," he said.
All ewe lambs are retained and classed into three different groups as ewe hoggets.
The top 5-10pc go into the nucleus mob, another 60pc are put into the Merino breeding flock and 35pc go straight into the terminal sire group.
Both wether and crossbred lambs are finished in the onsite feedlot.
"When they enter the feedlot varies depending on the season," Mr Gillam said.
"We bring them into the feedlot based on the paddock feed availability rather than weight, whenever we believe it's time to get them off the stubbles."
The lambs spend anywhere between four to 10 weeks in the feedlot to reach a target carcase weight of 24kg.
During their time in the feedlot they are fed a homegrown self-mixed ration made up of lupins, oats and barley at a rate that is basically adlib.
The family also finishes both its Merino and crossbred lambs to an onsite feedlot.
A portion of the Gillam's Merino and Poll Dorset lambs are sold after the new year, their aim is to get 20pc of lambs off at that time and the rest are sold between January and June, direct to abattoirs.
Last year was a great year for lamb production with the average price for all lambs more than $200 including Merino wethers.
"We haven't focused on the boat trade in about seven years," he said.
"We find we can get a better return in the feedlot from value-adding for domestic markets."
Serradella and sub-tropical perennial grasses have been used throughout the property to improve production, however pastures predominantly consist of volunteer annual grasses, clover and capeweed.
Blue lupins also play a significant role in providing high value summer grazing.
Supplementary feeding is done accordingly when required, and usually sheep are supplementary fed lupins.
"This year we didn't have to supplementary feed because we had some really good feed available," Mr Gillam said.
The property has a diverse enterprise mix also having a significant cropping program and running 400 breeding cows.
This year the cropping front consisted of 2700ha of wheat, 2500ha of lupins, 450ha of canola and 200ha of hay and fodder.
"We keep enough lupins to feed the stock and we retain all of the fodder for sheep and hay predominantly gets fed to the cattle," he said.
"We have been doing hay and fodder crops for about eight years now.
"We were off to a great start in terms of cropping, we had a bit of a dry June which has certainly hurt the crop development, but we've had good July rain so that has really kicked things back into gear."
