Darkan and Williams locals turned out to show support and say goodbye to brothers Peter and Kennedy Hogg at a clearing sale last week on their farm between the towns.
The brothers are retiring from farming to opposite ends of the State - Peter to Broome, where he has a house and has been living for some time, regularly travelling between there and the farm, while Kennedy is moving to Dunsborough.
Peter Hogg said they had grown up on the now leased out farm, initially run by their father and then by them as a cropping and sheep enterprise.
"Our grandfather used to farm about 10 kilometres from here and during the war (World War II) he bought this place so when our father came home from the war he settled here," Mr Hogg said.
"We got rid of our sheep about three years ago, in the good times, much better than if we had hung onto them and tried to sell them now."
Top item at the clearing sale was a 2013 New Holland T8.330 front-wheel-assist tractor in tidy condition, with dual rear tyres, three-point linkage and showing 3200 engine hours.
It was bought for $145,000 after a short bidding contest by a representative of Hotham Flats Farming, Cuballing, who declined to give his name, but was happy to talk about the tractor.
"It'll be a back up tractor for us, the (three-point) linkage will make it very useful," he said.
"I guess you could call me a rainbow farmer - I've got red, green and yellow machines and now I've got blue too."
The farmer said he planned to start sowing this season's crop on April 15 and while the home farm at Cuballing had not received recent rains, a block further east near Wickepin had received some.
"I'll probably start on the home block though - it's closest to the workshop," he quipped.
Despite Nutrien Ag Solutions auctioneer Grant Lupton's best efforts to get bidding started on a newer, but smaller New Holland T7.190 front-wheel-assist tractor - a 2018 model showing just 1477 hours - his "once-only" call at $90,000 failed to elicit a bid and the tractor was passed in.
Also passed in was the very tidy last-lot New Holland CR9070 combine harvester, offered with a 10.9 metre New Holland Honey Bee front and locally-made comb trailer.
Bidding for the header opened at $80,000, but ran out of puff at $90,000 after only three bids.
But a 2008 Phillips Rollerdown pick up front for the harvester, put up as a separate lot, sold for $16,000.
After a high-pressure wash down in their preparation for sale, the header and smaller tractor presented very well.
Several among the crowd commented their failure to sell at auction gave credence to an old adage about clearing sales - if you are going to hold one, go early, rather than later in the season when potential buyers may have already bought elsewhere, or be preoccupied preparing to put a crop in.
Initially offered as a single lot consisting of 2006 FM13 Volvo 2x8 prime mover with 847,000 kilometres and a note stating a leaking steering box would be "repaired at vendors' cost", a 2010 Burns triaxle tipper trailer and 2000 Matrik tandem pig trailer, the grain carting combination attracted interest before the sale.
Several people started the Volvo and inspected it thoroughly.
Bidding opened at $100,000 but did not progress past $120,000, which Mr Lupton told bidders was "not enough".
The prime mover and trailer, without the pig trailer, was then offered again and the same bidders declined to go beyond $100,000, so the rig was passed in a second time.
However, negotiations immediately after the sale saw the truck and trailer without pig sold privately for $120,000.
A 2016 Marshall Multispread 860 T-L spreader and a 2012 Pederick HD1000 seed and fertiliser bin on hoists, both in good condition, were also passed in at $30,000 and $25,000 respectively, but an older well-used Volvo F1023 2x8 tipper tray truck sold for $14,500.
Acre Farms, Kojonup, took home a 2016 trailed Sonic 5024T boomsprayer with 5000 litre main tank, chemical mixing, foam and washdown tanks and 28m boom for $50,000.
A 2020 Toyota HiLux single cab 4x4 ute showing 18,663km with an unmarked steel tray sold for $44,000 to Martin Farming, Australind, while a Komatsu WA80 wheel loader sold to R & N Pearce, Toodyay.
Another rig thoroughly inspected was a 2007 tow-behind Morris 7180 air cart and Concept 2000 9.7m bar set up for single-shot seeding.
The seeding rig sold to PW & AM Lubcke, Darkan, after one of the most contested bidding battles of the sale, which took the price from $20,000 to $32,000 in $1000 increments.
Self-propelled grain augers brought good money at clearing sales last year and again this year, following introduction of new workplace health and safety laws, and the Hogg brothers' 50x9 hydraulic drive Pederick auger, made in Darkan, raised $19,000 after spirited bidding.
Also made by Pederick, a 2008 28 tonne field bin with hydraulic lift sold for $10,000, but a 2012 42t Sherwell field bin, also with hydraulic lift, was passed in at $7000.
In seemingly as-new condition, a New Holland 1411 Discbine mower-conditioner which sold for $18,000 was the bargain of the sale and a 16 pin wheel rake sold for $12,500.
Four unused Universal lick feeders were put up as separate lots, with the first two selling for $2500 each, the third for $2600 and the fourth for $2800, all to individual buyers.
Peter Moore from Nutrien Ag Solutions, Williams, said the sale went well.
"I think everyone is more than happy with how it went," Mr Moore said.
"There's a couple of items still there, which always happens, but I think all in all, it has been a very good sale and we had more than 160 register to bid.
"Since the sale ended we've sold the grain truck and trailer and the little tractor is in negotiation.
"There's also some interest in the header - two parties - so I think it will also be sold shortly," he said an hour after the sale ended.
