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Tenterdern’s Mr Hall of wool fame

Great Southern Herald
Murray Hall with shearer Darren Clarke and classer Barbara Clayton.
Camera IconMurray Hall with shearer Darren Clarke and classer Barbara Clayton. Credit: Supplied

Tenterden’s Murray Hall has taken home WAMMCO’s producer of the month title for December, capping another stellar year for the veteran sheep producer despite low rainfall.

One of WA’s top wool producers, Purpareena’s Mr Hall was among the first to shift his annual lambing from May to late winter about 50 years ago.

“It made a lot of sense then and still enables us to better match feed requirements to needs, to produce more lambs and to keep them and the ewes in better condition,” he said this month.

He also mated his older merino ewes to white Suffolk rams to capture lucrative markets for prime lambs.

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As a result, 97.5 per cent of his 684 lambs processed in Katanning on December 5 hit WAMMCO’s “sweet spot”, weighing an average of 21.69kg and returning $152.10 each.

He has achieved strong lamb and wool results in a year when Purpareena received 150mm under its average annual rainfall.

“To win our Producer of the Month title in December with a large line of lambs is a major feat,” WAMMCO’s Rob Davidson.

“But meticulous care for his animals and proven management techniques with a thirst for feedback, have long been a hallmark of Murray’s operation.”

The WA sheep industry runs in the blood for Mr Hall, who runs Purpareena with his wife Erin, son Anthony and daughter-in-law Lesley.

His grandfather, Tom Hall, settled in Kendenup on his return from South America in 1914, working as a shearer and fencing contractor before buying a bush block for the family.

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