From the air it looks like business as usual for the Mannions at their property three hours north-west of Broken Hill, on the edge of the outback.
But a closer inspection reveals the sheep in their yard aren’t wool-growing merinos.
The family is transitioning away from traditional sheep breeds grown for their wool and into dorper sheep, known for their meat.
The expansive Lake Wallace Station is an ideal place for producing wool. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)
Grazier Michelle Mannion said a poor wool market and increasing costs had forced their hand after decades of working with merinos.
“They [dorpers] just seem to be the only thing that’s making the money at the moment,” she said.
Dorper sheep are known for their meat. (ABC Rural: Keva Gocher)
For Ms Mannion, the move is frustrating but a necessity if the family wants to continue to run a profitable enterprise.
“You’re cutting really quality wool and we’ve sort of been breeding and culling our sheep for years,” she said.
“So we’ve got a good line of merinos and that’s the worst thing.”
Grazier Matt Jackson runs about 7,000 wool-producing sheep. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)
Tough times
Matt Jackson’s family has been running sheep at Tirlta Station since 1938, with a history of wool on the property dating back even further.
The additional costs of running merinos, including labour for shearing, crutching, lamb marking as well as buying chemicals, is turning people away.
Contractors can be hard to come by for graziers like Mr Jackson. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)
While the shortage of shearers has eased over the past 12 months, running a sheep station in outback New South Wales presented plenty of challenges even before the impact of COVID-19, Mr Jackson said.
“It’s been pretty tough,” he said.
“It [the wool market] peaked in 2018, but that was right in the middle … of the drought and we didn’t have sheep here at the time.
“Since then it’s just been a battle … well, up until recently, with getting enough rain to grow feed to keep the stock here.”
With new fences required to contain dorpers, which are known for their ability to escape, Mr Jackson isn’t thinking about changing over just yet.
He’s hoping cooling cattle prices will provide him an opportunity to diversify beyond merinos and some goats.
It has taken the Mannions about 15 years to install 600 kilometres of fences. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)
No looking back
A few hours drive south along the Darling River at Pooncarie, it’s auction day at Dust N Rain dorper stud.
Dozens of potential buyers have made the journey in person, with many more following online.
Owner Gary Cullinan’s family has a rich history of wool-growing dating back to the 1890s.
But after more than 100 years, he made the switch and hasn’t looked back.
“It was sort of … going out on a limb a bit,” he said.
Gary Cullinan was one of the first in the area to start moving away from wool, making the switch in the late 1990s. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)
Mr Cullinan has seen the number of dorpers in far-western NSW increase dramatically over the past two decades.
“A lot of my buyers are local … I’ve had Ivanhoe, Menindee, Broken Hill, back down to Wentworth and Balranald way,” he said.
He estimates 75 per cent of surrounding properties have dorpers.
One of his buyers is Todd Morton, who snagged a handful of Mr Cullinan’s sought-after sheep.
Todd Morton runs Barraroo, north of Menindee. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)
He recalls the grief his late father Craig copped when they made the switch at Barraroo, when he was young.
“It was probably not a lot different to the blokes that made the early call to go into goats,” Mr Morton said.
“They copped a fair bit of flak and were called mad or stupid and that sort of stuff.”
‘How could you run them?’
Mr Morton’s partner Kate McBride grew up on a wool station down the road and heard plenty about dorpers growing up.
“I remember seeing a dorper come through the yards and you’d just think, ‘That mad thing, how could you run them?”” she said.
“Now having come here and seen what a well-run dorper property looks like, that’s been an incredible experience and there’s massive pros for this part of the country I think too.”
Kate McBride says there are lots of pros for having dorpers in outback NSW. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)
One of the key takeaways the group tried to communicate was that more farming and grazing enterprises would move out of wool if the price didn’t pick up.
“People just can’t stick it out forever,” Ms McBride said.
While the price of wool remains low, it’s likely more graziers across western NSW will look at diversifying or switching over completely to dorpers.
It’s unlikely Mr Morton will change back, but he’s open to anything and has a never-say-never attitude.
“You just don’t know what’s going to be around the corner or how things are going to change or how the industry’s going to change,” he said.
“It’s forever growing.”
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