Challenging does not even begin to describe the past 12 months for WA's sheep industry.
Lack of clarity around the Federal government's live export phase-out, prices falling to the lowest level in years, limited kill space and dry conditions across parts of the State, all eroded producer confidence.
Despite this and after much deliberation, South Coast sheep producer Drew Wallace decided to go ahead with joining this season.
Mr Wallace, who runs a mixed farming enterprise with his parents and brother, experienced similar turmoil when the wool market crashed in 1991.
At the time, the Wallace family moved entirely out of sheep.
They decided to increase numbers only about a decade ago.
"I didn't think I would have to go through it again, but here we are," Mr Wallace said.
"(The live export phase-out) is the most destructive policy setting from a government that I have seen in my lifetime.
"It is hard to comprehend they could not see the writing on the wall, after what happened when they tried to put a stop to live cattle exports."
Mr Wallace runs 400 Merino-Dohne ewes, which are joined with a White Suffolk ram for an Easter-Anzac Day lambing.
He reduced sheep stocking rates where possible, as profitability reduced by 50 per cent last year and will look to further reduce numbers should the phase-out be enacted.
Lambs, which are the bread and butter of the Wallaces' sheep production, are sent directly for processing or to a feedlot.
"We made a nomination for our heavy lambs to be processed mid-year and that was cut back by 50pc," Mr Wallace said.
"We weren't sure where to send them, particularly with the short season, because they weren't really a live export shipping proposition."
Running purely a grass-based production system with sheep and cattle, Mr Wallace said lambs would start to lose condition when they were taken off green feed.
He didn't want to watch them slip past a condition score four, where they wouldn't be suitable for processors or butchers.
"If we lose condition that's going to create a lot of issues for us," he said.
"With the market uncertainty, we wanted to offload a third of our breeding ewes, but there's no market for them either.
"So we put the rams out in recent weeks and for better or worse we are going ahead with our crossbred lamb production.
"We are keeping our fingers crossed that no more government announcements are made that will crash the industry again."
If sheep numbers were to decline, Mr Wallace said the lack of diversity in WA would have far reaching implications - all of which were offered as part of the consultation process.
He believed submissions on sustainability, welfare outcomes, national restocking capability, management of crop failure, chemical resistance strategies and soil conservation implications would all be ignored as a vote grab.
Furthermore, Mr Wallace said he did not think it boded well for domestic processors or consumers in the long-term.
He labelled policy settings, such as the live export phase-out, as "tragically short-sighted" and "blatantly political".
"I think the lack of confidence in government policy in the long-term will prove to be a major factor in supply degradation over the next 10 years," Mr Wallace said.
"Keeping in mind that when farm stock handling infrastructure is lost or degrades, there is often minimal finance available for replacement.
"Onfarm, I will make decisions regarding lamb production knowing government has lost the trust of long-term trading partners and that the government is actively promoting an unprofitable and unsustainable business model for animal agriculture.
"As part of these decisions, I have called our ram supplier and apologised for not supporting him with our annual supply requirement last year.
"Of course, he understands the implications at the farm gate. "
Mr Wallace feared that once and if, live sheep exports were stopped, it would be a case of what's next?
In saying that, he was pleased to see the National Farmers' Federation, late last year, hit back at Federal government with a strong and targeted response for WA.
This has included the Keep Farmers Farming campaign, with advertising targeting marginal seats sharing farmers' fears about the live sheep export phase-out.
As part of the campaign, print, digital and outdoor ads ran in Perth featuring Borden sheep and grain farmer Jamie Spence.
Heading into 2024 Mr Wallace hoped Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt would visit the State.
"I hope we see Mr Watt in WA addressing the issues raised by producers in the somewhat shambolic phase-out report directly, with the respect and transparency that has been absent from the government policy agenda to date."
