THE price of wool is the best Jim O’Connell, Camara Station, Winton, has seen in his entire life. He said the price, paired with more than 200mm of rain in March, has been “lifesaving” for the sheep and wool operation in the state’s west.
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On Monday, Camara Station, owned by Jim and Rhonda O’Connell, will begin shearing and Mr O’Connell said this year he feels confident, mostly due to the “extraordinary” price of wool. He said until March, the year was looking “very ordinary”.
“If we had had less than two inches we were going to have the worst summer rainfall for 50 years,” he said.
Heading into shearing, Mr O’Connell said he expects weights to be down, but said any ewes that haven’t reared a lamb were looking good, and those that did had “done their part” with the lamb already.
“But it’s such good money – it’s fantastic money at the moment for wool, it’s the best it’s ever been in my lifetime,” he said.
“Hope we get a reasonably good season and we can get back to being reasonably well stocked next year.”
Despite ongoing drought, Mr O’Connell said they have managed to maintain the nucleus of the breeding flock, and are currently running 3500 Merino breeders on about 17,000 hectares. They source their rams from Egelabra Merino Stud in NSW.
Nutritionally, Camara Station relies heavily on putting out lick and cottonseed, which they buy in bulk due to freight costs.
Working full-time on the property is agricultural consultant Pip Flower, who said the past year has seen less wild dog concerns and more fox issues.
She said heading into shearing, they were expecting less bales than usual.
“Because the season has been so crook I don’t think the wool weight will be that high,” she said.
“We’ll probably be getting four kilogram fleeces, five (kilograms) pushing it.
“It’s been a bit of a crook year, we’ve lost quite a few (ewes).”
After shearing, Camara Station will move into marking lambs, and then weaning will begin for the 160-head cattle herd, which mostly aims for the feeder market.
At Camara there are three crews of working dogs, with Mrs O’Connell running a Kelpie crew, Mr O’Connell with the Border Collies, and Ms Flower also has her own crew. Both Mr and Mrs O’Connell compete with their dogs.