Wool bolsters new shed

"We had two years of over 100 per cent lambings, averaging 85pc," said Kym Andrews, who runs 57,000-hectare Avondale with his wife Sue, son Matt and family.

"That was when we toyed with the idea of upgrading the shed, and when the better times came (in 2010-12) we decided to do it.

"We also upgraded some fencing and put in more waters; we've got over 80 kilometres of poly piping on the place now."

The original Avondale shearing shed was a five-stand, cyclone saw-tooth.

"We turned the old shed into a sheep room and added a 60 by 60 feet extension including a wool handling area at ground level and a six-stand raised board," Mr Andrews said.

At shearing earlier this year, he said they had put 10,500 sheep through the shed - the old shed was only capable of holding 800 to 900 grown woolly sheep under cover.

The new infrastructure - built by Statewide Sheds at Dubbo, NSW - allowed them to be more efficient.

"The new stands are now three metres apart and raised, so the rouseabouts don't need to jump out of the road all the time," Mr Andrews said.

"If they get behind they can push the fleece aside - before they had to get the sheep and fleeces out of the way as soon as possible."

The shed had also improved OH&S and work Safe procedures - "they've improved out of sight" - and Mr Andrews said they could get through shearing a bit quicker than before, largely because they now had six shearing stands instead of five.

Avondale - always a Merino operation - was started by Mr Andrews' grandfather in 1890.

"He had a small bit of land to the east (of the current homestead)," he said.

"Each generation has built it up a bit more."

Today, the Andrews family aims to breed sheep which "cut a bit of wool, are plain-bodied, heavy cutting and fertile".

Adult sheep average a 21 to 22-micron fleece, and weaners about 19M.

Wool yields have been up to 68 per cent but generally average about 65pc, and ewes have cut fleeces up to eight kilograms in a good year, averaging 7-7.5kg most years.

The Andrews' normally mate about 6000 ewes at two to 2.5pc, depending on the country, for a May-June lambing.

"We have some plains country, but there's also some hilly country on the western end which is fairly hard to get a good lambing in, except in good years," Mr Andrews said.

In a reasonable season, he said they could sell lambs over-the-hooks but in lighter seasons, usually send them to Ararat, Vic, for sale.

Last year, they decided to send some lambs to a feedlot at Loxton.

Mulloorie rams have been used on Avondale since 1984 - the Andrews are one of the stud's oldest clients.