"WE WANT to run more sheep," was the declaration of South Australian Mallee farmer Ian Farley.
"It's all about making dollars and cents," Mr Farley said.
"(After several bad seasons) we just can't afford another loss of half a million (dollars) from cropping."
And at last week's Naracoorte feature first-cross ewe lamb sale, Ian was well on the way to justifying running more sheep.
He yarded more than 1300 April-May drop Border Leicester-Merino cross ewe lambs which sold to a top of $178 and averaged $163.
Last year, like many South Australian breeders and vendors, he had to bear the brunt of weaker demand because of the drought and erratic lamb prices.
His top and average prices were up $60 on last year.
Mr Farley also capped off that result by winning the Border Leicester ribbon for the best presented pen of the sale.
Like many breeders of first cross ewes, Mr Farley's emphasis is on turning out well-grown joinable ewe lambs rather than holding them to sell as 1 1/2-year-olds.
"It's a now a very professional business," he says.
Mr Farley prefers what he describes as a thick-skinned South Australian type crossed with a SuperBorder ram. These are sourced from Lyn Arney's Inverbrackie stud.
"You'll find most of the top sheep here today are by SuperBorders," he said.
The SuperBorder tag applies to Border Leicester rams which have an above-average Lambplan index and are bred by members of the SuperBorder group.
Mr Farley said he would prefer to breed his own Merino, although this year, with numbers down, he paid $150 for ewes to build his flock. Currently, he is joining 3000 Merinos to Border Leicesters, 2000 to White Suffolk and another 2000 back to Merino rams.
The wether mates of this year's drop of ewe lambs were sold in two mobs in September for $101 and $96.
Add that to last week's ewe lamb returns and a wool cut of more than $40 from his Merinos, and it is no wonder Mr Farley wants to wind back a cropping program of 4000 hectares.
