Bayden Reid knows sheep inside and out.
The 33-year-old is a skilled pregnancy tester, working out of Kojonup in the heart of the Western Australian sheepbelt.
He has returned to the area where he grew up living on a farm that his father was managing.
After completing high school at the Western Australian College of Agriculture - Denmark, Mr Reid did a traineeship with Primaries of WA as a livestock selling agent.
This landed him a livestock agent job in Darkan, where he spent 18 months getting a good understanding of the local sheep industry and networking with growers across the South West and Great Southern.
Then the lure of the mining sector became too strong and he went out and got a blasting license before heading up north.
"Mining was booming then and it was really good fun," Mr Reid said.
"But I always wanted to come back to Kojonup for the lifestyle."
An opportunity arose to work for Livestock Shipping Services (LSS), running its Kojonup feedlot and pre-export quarantine facility Amberley.
"That was my ticket back," Mr Reid said.
After an 18-month stint with LSS, he took up a position on the Kojonup sheep property of Tim Stevenson.
At their peak, they were running 25,000 head of sheep across several properties - including 4000 head at Kojonup.
For nine years, Mr Reid did all the drenching, marking, grazing strategies and other animal husbandry tasks.
They moved into shedding sheep at this time, being some of the first adopters in Western Australia.
"Getting that right was interesting, especially when they were not popular like they are now," Mr Reid said.
"Lucky for us, we hit a run of good seasons and the sheep thrived."
It was also during this time that Mr Stevenson taught Mr Reid how to pregnancy scan sheep and he did some contract work on the side.
He also started shearing big crossbred rams on a mobile trailer.
This led to him starting his own pregnancy scanning and ram shearing business, Southern Shear & Scan, which he now runs full-time and offers services right across WA's southern agricultural region.
"Pregnancy scanning happens in autumn and shearing in spring, so the two businesses complement each other well," he said.
"I love the travel and meeting farmers from Merredin right through the wider Great Southern down to Wellstead."
Mr Reid said pregnancy scanning of sheep was growing in popularity in WA.
"I would estimate only about half of the State's flock is currently being pregnancy tested," he said.
"This is strange because it is the biggest bang for your buck tactic you can do to improve the productivity of your flock.
"It allows you to identify and get rid of the dry ewes and better look after those carrying multiple pregnancies.
"It is well worth doing."
Mr Reid said his clients had noted an increase in flock fertility over just a few short years of pregnancy testing.
He said his biggest challenge was that pregnancy scanning was so seasonal and there was a small window in which it was carried out.
"This makes it really hectic," he said.
"You need to scan the foetus at the right age to get the optimum result and this can be tricky.
"But I love my job.
"I get to see a wide range of enterprises year-round and across the State.
"It is good to pick up bits and pieces about what people are doing.
"I am on a continual learning curve."
With the shearing trailer, this is towed around the State getting rams shorn in a safe manner.
"It is similar to a crutching cradle, in that the rams run on, get shorn then run off," Mr Reid said.
"It is much safer than shearing them on the board of the shearing shed because they are restrained."
Mr Reid is an active member of the Kojonup Football Club and played in the league for 15 years before recently retiring.
He is also the co-ordinator of the town's mixed netball competition, which has attracted eight teams this year.
