Farming life will be missed

Narrikup farmer Ross Ford decided to hold off selling his last flock of wethers at the WALSA June Special Sheep Sale last week.

"With less competition from the exporters, I decided to shear our remaining 1300 head of sheep before offloading," Ross said.

Over the years, Ross has sold many lines of Seven Oaks North blood wethers for top prices at Katanning.

"They were good hearty sheep that cut lots of productive wool," he said.

Now retired and living in Melbourne, Ross and his wife, Ruth, have the farm on the market and will leave the wool industry for good.

"I was 17 years old when I took over the farm from my dad," Ross said.

"At one stage we were running 7500 wethers plus a cattle herd. I have always taken great pride in producing sound livestock.

"It was also very pleasing to be in the wool shed during shearing."

Ross said farming life would be missed, even though many times it was tough going.

"There were probably too many short peaks in the market when we were really only ever looking for fair and consistent prices," he said.

The Fords picked Melbourne for their retirement because Ruth was originally from Victoria and their twin daughters are now enrolled in Melbourne's national ballet school.