IT seems Merinos have been and always will be the mainstay for Boddington farmers Simon and Natalie Kelsall - and they are proving why.
Being a second-generation Merino producer at the family property, Broughton, Mr Kelsall can vouch Merinos have a lot to offer.
The reliable annual rainfall average of 650 millimetres that Boddington offers has always been a major bonus for the Kelsalls to make their empire thrive.
Now, after farming at Broughton since 1975, Mr Kelsall and his wife are still passionate woolgrowers and manage more than 2850 hectares of owned and leased property, with help from their three children, William, Charlie and Emmeline, and workmen Paul Lloyd and James Densham.
Having tried blending crossbreds into their program throughout the years, it turns out that straight Merino breeding is a less complicated option and maximises the quality of the family's sheep operation.
Inside the farmgates, 8000 Merino ewes, 4600 Merino ewe hoggets and 130 rams are housed, which accounts for the biggest part of the business, with cropping dedicated to just 30 per cent of the property due to the undulating land and the family's preference to run sheep.
Admitting they have a more wool-based approach, the couple confessed the aim was to continue breeding a dual-purpose sheep that suited a meat-based market as well.
"We love that Merinos can produce a quality fleece," Mr Kelsall said.
"For us, due to Boddington's rainfall, we really need to have a good white, soft wool that can handle the amount of rain we get.
"Ideally we want to breed something that has good reproduction and is easy doing, it doesn't necessarily have to be a big animal either but preferably has fast growth rates."
Low-stress stock handling methods and lower stocking rates have both been key drivers in improving farm management in recent years.
"We lowered our stocking rates due to being more breeding-based," Mr Kelsall said.
"Now that we are focusing on our breeding and predominantly breeding ewes, we prefer having less sheep so we can look after them better."
Visual appraisal is the main form of selecting the best Merino sires for the breeding operation, with wool yet again being the number one priority.
The family maintains a good relationship with the Wallinar Merino stud, Broomehill, which is where it has been sourcing quality rams for as long as Mr Kelsall can remember.
"We do go off visual selection and think we are getting it right without Australian Sheep Breeding Values," Mr Kelsall said,
"The rams need to have the right wool, that's what we go off first, followed by conformation and a micron that's about 19-19.5 micron, which is where our sheep generally average."
Early February is the start of the breeding season on the Kelsall's property, with rams being joined at 1.5pc with breeding mobs that are separated into age groups.
What would usually be a six-week mating period has recently been shortened to four weeks to improve management and have a tighter lambing window.
"We find with our six-week mating season, anything that wasn't in lamb within the first four weeks didn't get pregnant at all," Mr Kelsall said.
"It also helps us have more even-sized lambs and in future we would like to reduce it to three weeks, but we will see how we go."
High conception rates over all breeding mobs this year suggests the four-week breeding period has been beneficial, resulting in an overall conception rate of 147pc and 133pc for maiden ewes.
Following the joining period, pregnancy scanning isn't always something that has been used as a form of management, although in recent breeding seasons it had been.
"We didn't scan the last two years due to clashes with the seeding program as well as previously having good seasons," Mr Kelsall said.
"We were getting good figures, hence why we took a break but decided to scan this year to see how we were going and manage our flock better and sell any of our dry ewes."
Another excellent season in the Boddington area assisted in providing feed for single and twin-bearing ewes that are separated from each other after scanning, leading up to lambing that commences in July.
"Last year we had a 118pc overall lambing percentage and a lot more twins than usual too," he said.
"We noticed it was about half of the breeding mob that had singles and half had twins."
The animal health requirements post-lambing include tailing, lamb marking and administering various vaccinations, such as Gudair, to control Johne's disease and GlanEry 7in1 B12 which protects the herd from arthritis, cheesy gland, tetanus, pulpy kidney, blackleg, black disease, and oedema.
In the midst of improving nutrition and animal health practices, the pair said using long-acting injections and Capsules made a remarkable difference.
Once lambs are weaned in late October to early November, all wether lambs are sold straight off the ewes and marketed to other graziers who will value-add and finish them off on stubbles or in a feedlot environment.
"This is also another reason why we made our lambing window smaller, the lambs are easier to market when they are all a similar weight," Mr Kelsall said.
The entirety of the ewe lamb progeny is retained after weaning and put straight onto a standing oat crop.
"We really try to look after our ewe lambs and grow them out as much as possible to keep them on a rising plane (of nutrition)," he said.
"While they are still on the standing oat crop we will feed them lupins to boost their growth."
The ewe lambs will then undergo their first shearing in April, followed by the classing process in September by Mr Kelsall and workman Paul Lloyd.
All the replacement ewes that are kept will be shorn in the first week of November to eliminate any risk of being affected by grass seeds, and culls are sold to free up feed on the property.
"We class heavily on conformation, size and wool," Mr Kelsall said.
"We don't weigh them, we just go off visual appraisal, and if they are too small they are out.
"Any discoloured wool will also be classed out, we just want white and bright wool."
Mr Kelsall said usually 40pc of the ewe lambs would be classed out due to having a high lambing percentage and a high number of ewe hoggets.
"We like to keep 60pc of the best and usually turn off about 1700 ewe lambs a year," he said.
"The beauty of this is also giving other producers a good line of sheep to buy, which are usually crossbred buyers seeking replacement ewes.
"In that eight month wool growing period, the ewes produce an 80mm fleece which is just beautiful and of such high value.
"Because they are maidens we find shearing them also helps them grow."
After their November shearing, retained ewe hoggets will go out onto lupin stubbles to prepare for mating and be shorn again in June.
"Two to three weeks before lambing, the ewe hoggets are given a capsule and put in their lambing paddocks, before being shorn again in mid to late March the following year along with the older ewes," Mr Kelsall said.
The cropping program is roughly three equal parts lupins, barley and oats.
"We tend to seed when the conditions are right and we wait for rain and germination because we have cereal crops," Mr Kelsall said.
"Although we are predominantly sheep-based, there still needs to be some form of balance between the cropping program and the available sheep feed on the property."
This year seeding was in April which was unusual.
"The conditions were right for us to get started and the feed got away early due to good rainfall in the end of March and then again in April so we could get started," Mr Kelsall said.
"Although we don't live in ideal cropping country, we make an effort to do it where we can because it loosens up the pastures and gets them growing."
