FROM the paddock to the catwalk with traceability and accountability at the forefront, the Haggerty family's commercial Merino enterprise has a truly global reach.
Dianne, husband Ian and their sons James, Joshua and Matthew, have taken their passion for wool growing to the next level and in the process have given themselves an edge for the future with their enterprise Prospect.
This has involved gearing themselves in such a way that their wool is used to create high-end garments by the fashion houses of Europe.
The story of how they were able to achieve this enviable position has very humble beginnings and offers inspiration to future and current wool growers alike, because their passion, commitment and perseverance has certainly paid off.
Being the first generation of their family on their current farming properties, Dianne and Ian both came from farming families. but branched out and purchased their own land at Wyalkatchem in 1994.
By her own admission it has been a very interesting journey from where it began to now.
They own and lease 26,305 hectares (65,000ac) between three locations, the original Wyalkatchem/Yelbeni farm, and newer land at Mollerin Rock and Kalannie.
"We have had sheep since day one, when we only had 647ha (1600ac)," Ms Haggerty said.
"It was fairly difficult at first to have a good crack at it, but we were determined.
"When we bought the land in 1994 we also purchased 300 breeding ewes in lamb and this is where it all began and we have only ever had Merinos.
"The land we farm now is made up of leased, share farm and owned land but we operate all of it.
"We use every acre effectively, especially with the sheep."
Their enterprise used to consist of an even cropping-to-sheep mix however, with the increasing size of their business, so too did their passion for their Merino breeding and they currently sit at a 65:35 ratio Merino heavy enterprise mix.
"It was always about 50:50, but now we have dropped the crop down to about 40 per cent and this year it is actually 35pc," Ms Haggerty said.
"The sheep side has always been strong and is actually increasing."
They originally purchased ewes on the Jaloran bloodlines from Ms Haggerty's father and built on this creating their own stud, before registering the stud and continuing to utilise their own nucleus flock for their self replacing commercial Merino operation.
"My father had a nucleus flock and bred his own rams on the Jaloran line," Ms Haggerty said.
"When he sold out of his nucleus flock in 2001, I purchased his hoggets and I also purchased a line of stud ewes from Jaloran that year and set up a stud.
"Even though we have since deregistered we still operate our nucleus flock like a stud and have stud quality from our own breeding.
"Every couple of years we buy in a couple of really good stud sires to keep things moving.
"We buy rams mostly from the Calcookara stud in South Australia and have purchased from another stud in New South Wales too."
Having such enthusiasm for wool and sheep breeding has seen them hone their genetics to not only be consistent on their environment, but also have the evenness of type in both body and wool quality.
"We love Merinos," Ms Haggerty said.
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"They are a really robust animal.
"Their wool weights and production are beautiful, they are very rewarding sheep to run."
She said that although they do not focus on their micron specifically, they have noticed their micron fining of its own accord over time.
What started as an average of 21 micron across their flock, has gradually reduced to around 19.5 and their hoggets average around 16 micron.
Their overall Prospect flock consists of a total of 7000 Merinos, of which there are 3000 breeding ewes.
With such a large enterprise spread over a large area and several locations, they are very aware of the challenges and have made sure they can conduct their sheep enterprise as efficiently as possible.
"We have stylish, lustrous and bold crimping wool," Ms Haggerty said.
"We didn't try to source SRS genetics, but quality similar to that seems to be what we choose.
"Bare face and bare breach are part of this and although it is not dominant within our flock yet, we do see it quite a bit.
"We haven't mulesed since 2001 and we also stopped drenching and grain feeding in 2001."
This has been achievable thanks to their environment.
Ms Haggerty said the sheer size of their paddocks and their weather and landscape, made it easier to manage worm burdens and their flock has really good worm resistance.
They also do not need to worry about body strike and the only thing they will look out for is urine stains in the young lambs in spring.
They also have very biodiverse pastures and are able to cut multispecies hay.
The key to their breeding success is their nucleus flock.
"Being self-replacing is critical for us," Ms Haggerty said.
"That epigenetic progression of the animals and how they integrate with their landscape has been phenomenal to learn and understand and see.
"Their capacity to digest some of the native grasses is amazing and when they move onto the new farms as we have grown, it has been great to see how they have improved the poorer quality grasses and transformed them and do well on them.
"Whereas typically in the past, these grasses may have been unpalatable and over time the different farming practices means the palatability increases on those grasses and capacity of the animals to understand and work them.
"That has been an amazing thing for us, just seeing the biodiversity of the plants on the farm and the sheep's capacity to utilise those.
"We look at the work of Fred Provenza and Dean Revell with the biodiverse grazing and learnt behaviour of lambs from their mothers and in utero what they are adapted to and what the mother grazes, all those things have been really important to our program and how things have progressed."
It is very much about quality nutrition and transferring microbes from bushland and pasture or cropping land for the Haggertys and how this creates a total health of the land and animals.
"Our sheep are good doers," Ms Haggerty said.
"They are robust and fertile and we sell the lambs into the market at, with all being pasture fed.
"The diversity of the pasture is also what puts the flavour into the meat.
"Wether lambs go directly to the abattoir."
Their breeding program commences in early January and is concentrated around their shearing program.
"Rams go in, in early January, because we shear every eight months and with shearing in April we wanted to do this before lambing started," Ms Haggerty said.
So shearing takes place in April, December and August over the two-year period, with crutching in springtime if the sheep have a bit of wool on them.
Lambing is in June/July at Prospect and the lambing average is 100pc sometimes up to 120pc.
When they took on more land in Mollerin they realised it didn't have adequate shearing facilities and this was something they knew they needed to invest in for the future also.
"We needed to be able to attract and maintain shearing teams," Ms Haggerty said.
"An important part of this is the infrastructure so we built the new shed, which has very high yards, almost like cattle yards, which stops the sheep from jumping out and injuring themselves.
"This makes it easier to manage also."
Their holistic approach to their farm land, pastures, crops and animals is why they have gone a step further and been Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) and Nativa certified.
This certification and their relationship with their wool buyer, Westcoast Wool & Livestock, has put them in the inimitable position of selling their wool to Chargeurs which in turn sells to the high-end fashion houses in Europe.
"Westcoast Wool & Livestock handles the wool between us and Chargeurs," Ms Haggerty said.
"Chargeurs have all been out to visit onfarm and Westcoast Wool & Livestock have been very involved."
With the paddock to plate ideal being long-held as an ideal in the meat industry, the Haggertys have an exclusive insight into their wool's ultimate use.
Ms Haggerty said they have been able to witness their wool in the form of fashion garments on the catwalk in Europe, all because of their hard work, dedication and commitment to growing ethically and environmentally responsible products.
The future of the Haggertys' Merino enterprise is one of growth, with the family looking to increase its flock size, but they will focus on managing the landscape first to ensure everything works in synergy.
