Everything old is new again, a song from the musical All That Jazz, could be an apt anthem Journey’s End, the Greaves’ family farm near Koorda.
Prices Gary Greaves received for 75 bales, part of a March shearing held over until week seven auctions last month at the Western Wool Centre, harked back decades to when wool was a regulated industry and growers had a floor-price safety net.
“Our wool clip was pretty awesome (and the prices) were the best for wool I’ve seen here for 20 years,” Mr Greaves said. He farms with wife Pam, son Ryan, 17, and parents Neville and Helen.
Mr Greaves’ Merino fleece was in the 21-22 micron range, MF5 good by the style guide, a little long at up to 106 millimetres staple length and with light burr, typical of the WA wool being snapped up by Chinese processors.
A line of his lambs’ wool sold to a top of 1171 cents per kg greasy and his ‘sweep the floor’ consignment average was 1018c/kg in a market building towards record territory the following week.
With a dry autumn/winter shaping as potentially the worst season in 40 years of farming, Mr Greaves resorted to the old practice of turning his flock out to graze Calingiri and Mace wheat crops before locking the paddocks up again. Late rains saw the crops rejuvenate.
“It’s a practice that was used 40 years ago. It was something my father showed me (his grandfather was first to bring sheep to the region in 1910, running up to 10,000 sheep in his early years). It saved me hand feeding.
“This is wheat and sheep country, you can’t have one without the other. My father recognised that 70 years ago, and his father told him that. Sometimes you can’t grow a crop, but you can always grow a bit of wool.
“That’s the thing people tend to forget with sheep, you’ve got three income sources with wool, prime lambs and marketing of your older sheep.”
Mr Greaves is proud of his sheep which do very well on light stocking rates and are an important contributor to farm income and weed control.
“Once you are in a routine and are happy with the system, stay with it and the years are what they are – that’s the secret of being in sheep.”
