The end of live sheep export by sea was the last straw for Wongan Hills farmer Graham Bookham.
The new policy, signalled last year by Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt for after the next Federal election and reaffirmed last month to local farmers, was making livestock production impossible for the family to deal with.
"Government policies are making it impossible to run livestock anymore," said Mr Bookham, after he and son Stephen paid second top price of $180,000 for a well-used Ausplow seeding rig at a Pindar clearing sale for Sungem Enterprises Pty Ltd on Wednesday last week.
"I can't cope with them (government policies affecting animal production), so we are destocking, getting rid of all our sheep and cattle and going 100 per cent cropping," he said.
"Having an Agriculture Minister who seems to me to be against farming, makes farming more difficult than it should be."
Mr Bookham said he and Stephen were planning a 4200-hectare cropping program for the coming season, hence the purchase of the lot 200 tow-between Multistream air cart with two 4500 litre bins and cameras and 15.2 metre Auseeder DBS D-300 seeding bar with split boots at 30.4 centimetre spacings.
It will be a second rig to help get more seed in the ground quickly at the optimum time, Mr Bookham said.
"Without livestock, we'll be increasing our cropping program by 1000ha this year," he said.
Top sale item was lot 199, a 2010 John Deere 9430 four-wheel-drive articulated tractor with Starfire 6000 guidance, 8051 engine hours and dual wheels with 75 per cent tyre tread.
A note stuck on the cab door said it had come onto the farm last year and also had $30,000 spent on overhauling a differential.
Nutrien Ag Solutions auctioneer Craig Walker accepted an opening bid of $150,000 and a tit-for-tat dual ensued between a bidder at the sale and a bidder on the phone to a Nutrien staffer bidding on their behalf.
Rapid-fire bids quickly took the price in $5000 increments to $200,000, with the anonymous phone bidder - understood to be a Western Australian machinery dealer with agricultural interests - successful at that price.
Local and some interstate dealers have been active at WA clearing sales so far this year, particularly those offering near-new, low-hours big and medium tractors or older, big-horsepower tractors in good condition.
The dealers are attempting to capitalise on strong machinery demand from Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, where extensive rains have signalled a potentially very good start to the cropping season.
An anonymous South Australian machinery dealer, also bidding by phone, claimed a 1995 4WD John Deere 8770 tractor on duals with Autotrac and 10,679 hours for $14,000, ahead of a local bidder who also wanted it.
After yet another on-phone versus in-person bidding dual, Lindsay Matthews, Rudds Gully, in person, claimed a 1998 John Deere 7600 tractor with front-end loader bucket, rake and forks, as well as guidance, for $32,000.
A 1994 4WD John Deere 8870 tractor on duals, with 11,339 hours, sold to a local buyer for $15,000 and Alistair Smith, Glenroy Chaff, Northam, outbid other phone competition for smaller John Deere 4640 and 4440 tractors at $17,000 and $10,000 respectively.
One for collectors, a rare 1989 Brazil-built, Cummins-powered 230 kiloWatt, 4WD articulated Mller TM31 tractor with 6657 hours showing, sold for $1800 and four old Chamberlain tractors with a variety of attachments sold for between $1500 and $400 to different buyers.
There was interest on AuctionsPlus in a 1985 Komatsu WA200 wheel loader with bucket and forks.
But a local bidder from Bundear Farm, Geraldton, was successful with a $30,000 bid.
The only lot to go to a bidder on AuctionsPlus was a vintage Caterpillar D4D bulldozer for $16,000.
The last half of the sale was broadcast live on AuctionsPlus.
An Ausplow deep ripper sold for $13,750, two 45 tonne Moylan field bins sold for $7500 each to different buyers, a Marshall Multispread 880T spreader made $10,000 and a Trufab 15t chaser bin $8000.
Two Western 7 pin wheel rakes sold for $7000 and $5800, one of two sets of John Shearer 5GP tandem 26-disc plough sets sold for $2400 and the other was passed in and a Flexicoil 820 15.2m seeding bar with Stiletto boots sold for $2500.
There was no bidder interest in a 2005 John Deere 9760 combine harvester with dual front wheels and 936D front and only one bid of $20,000 was received on a 2005 John Deere 4920 self-propelled boomsprayer with 36m boom and Greenstar 6000 guidance.
Both the header and sprayer were passed in.
Vendor Dave Goodwin, speaking on behalf of his wife Cindy and brother-in-law Stephen Excell, said the sale was "a sad day" for the three principals of Sungem Enterprises.
"Between the three of us, we have more than 130 years living in Mullewa," Mr Goodwin said, as he thanked people who had helped them set up the clearing sale.
Later Mr Goodwin said his wife's grandfather had bought the farm in 1948 and he and his wife were "disappointed" neither of their sons had taken it on.
"But that's how life goes, they have to make their own decisions," he said.
Mr Goodwin said his brother-in-law's ill health and his own age meant moving "closer to the big smoke" had been forced on them by circumstances rather than by choice.
He said BP had bought the property and, like some other former farms bought by oil and gas companies on sand plain in the northern Wheatbelt, it was likely to be planted with trees to create carbon offsets.
"We seriously considered their lease option, but decided their purchase option was the best in our circumstances," he said
"(BP) offered a price that helped us get out and into something else."
Nutrien Ag Solutions agent Chad Smith said the sale attracted good interest, with 107 people registering to bid.
"We had AuctionsPlus operating on the sale and a lot of guys on the phone who are not totally confident, yet operating on that system, so we had a lot of interest in the big stuff," Mr Smith said.
"We had the header and the sprayer passed in, which is par for the course at this time of year, but I think we'll get the deal done.
"We are talking to a couple of blokes about those."
