FOR more than a century the Grace family has farmed land near South Anabranch in south-west NSW.
Bill and Elaine Grace run Milpara Station with their son David 'Jacko' Grace and his family.
Mr Grace's grandfather settled there in 1872.
In turn, his father started with about 16 hectares during the depression years, built a small house, and worked in the Wentworth area.
Since then the property has expanded to about 14,500ha.
The Graces run a mix of Merinos and SAMMs in a self-replacing flock, and shear between 6500 and 7000 each year.
Mr Grace said Milpara had traditionally run Merinos, and aimed to produce 22 micron to 23M fleece.
"Any stronger than that and prices drop a bit," he said.
The family introduced SAMM rams into the flock five years ago to boost the size of sheep, driven by good prices for meat.
"They look good and sell well in the yards as lambs," Mr Grace said.
He said the first-cross Merino-SAMM gave him the best of both worlds - a large-framed sheep that did not compromise wool.
The Graces sell wethers as suckers, often over-hooks but have a preference for saleyards, usually through Ouyen, Vic.
Ewes lamb from April 1.
Mr Grace said their break usually came in May and ewes could generally carry the lambs for the first month.
A lambing at that time also meant the lambs were big enough to sell after shearing in September.
With summer generally dry, the Graces try to offload all lambs and older ewes beforehand.
"The main thing is not to overstock for very long," Mr Grace said.
"There are no books written on how to run sheep out here. If you stick to about one sheep per 10 acres (about 4ha), you're fairly right.
"Go with the season of course, but that's a good benchmark. If you go further north it changes."
A classer is brought in each year to try and cull about one-third of ewe lambs from the flock.
This year, Mr Grace was pleased to discover that only 18 per cent of the flock was culled - an indication that the breeding program was heading in the right direction.
The Milpara flock has also received the Elders Wool Clip of the Sale award several times, including one last month.
* Full report in Stock Journal, November 27, 2014 issue.