CASH cropping at Kojonup has proved to be an adaptable and opportunistic venture undertaken by a large majority of the region's farmers.
And although there are still some discrepancies about the ratio of sheep to cropping in the area there is one thing farmers agree on.
Historically, Kojonup is known for its ability to produce good quality Merinos for meat and wool and is famed for being the first WA shire to accumulate one million sheep.
But since the collapse of price stabilisation under the Wool Reserve Price Scheme in 1991/92, Kojonup sheep farmers started to seek other options to supplement their income.
And targeted cropping rotations provided just that.
Elders Kojonup agronomist Courtney Piesse said the majority of his clients had slowly turned away from sole livestock production in the last 10 years because unlike sheep and wool prices, historically cropping provided steady returns.
To a certain degree the Great Southern had always been a mixed enterprise farming area but he believed current issues like weed problems, increased acreages and uncharacteristic seasonal variations had caused farmers to change their approach to the mixed enterprise in recent years and turn to crop growing.
"It's cash cropping because the return on investment can sometimes be quite high but not in all situations of course," Mr Piesse said.
"We just have to look at the season just gone where the wet finish and poor prices meant a lower return to growers.
"Also economies of scale comes into effect as farms get bigger throughout the area."
He said while the level of grain production did depend on grain prices to an extent, there was also an opportunity,through the utilisation of a good rotation, to maximise yields in every paddock for a varied number of years.
"Ensuring good yields by being efficient in the use of fertiliser, chemical, seed and other inputs is always important," Mr Piesse said.
"Correct rotations are also vital to ensure paddocks are able to be rid of any weeds and also to reduce pressure from soil and plant diseases as well as insect pressures.
"All this should be done with the bottom line in mind and also with a long-term view on what the specific paddock plan is."
But he didn't believe there would be a significant move back to sheep production within the region in the near future even if sheep prices remained at record highs.
"Some farms will never have stock on them permanently from now on in but I would imagine that most farms will always have a stock element involved," Mr Piesse said.
"This is because there are large areas in the Great Southern not suited to cropping because they're too low, salty, acidic or for a number of other reasons.
"Also the shift away from stock will change as stock prices change.
"If producers are unable to buy back into stock they will have to keep cropping to stay profitable."
David Forrester has farmed in the Kojonup region since 1981.
Together with his wife Caroline, David said he desperately needed to increase the size and complexity of his cash cropping program in the last two years because he couldn't breed sheep quickly enough to make the most of a newly leased farm.
The Forresters farm 2800ha of owned and leased arable land, 1150ha of which is cropped each season.
"I'd rather be selling sheep now than buying them," he said.
"But I have a feeling the high sheep prices won't stick around, both for the exporters and the local market."
David said it had taken producers in the Kojonup region a long time to rebuild Merino flocks after their demise throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
While others had spent years cross-breeding their Merino ewes with British breed rams once wool prices started to drop away.
"We spent four or five years crossbreeding Merinos with British Breeds but we're back to an all Merino operation now," David said.
"During that time our cropping program filled the void."
But Kojonup Ag Supplies owner operator Ned Capper believed there had already been an obvious return to sheep production in Kojonup over the last two years.
He said a large number of growers had returned to sheep because the monetary return for meat and wool per hectare had proven to be more profitable and sheep would always prove to be a safer bet than some cropping rotations.
But could Kojonup farmers return to full scale sole sheep production?
"Commodity prices will always dictate where a farm goes, it's still a business and people have to be realistic about it," Mr Capper said.
"Let's hypothetically say that if sheep numbers got to a point where supply outstripped demand and then prices suddenly halved, farmers could slowly go back into crop.
"And that's exactly the radical shift that happened 20 years ago.
"At one point nearly 70 per cent of Kojonup farms were in with crop and 30pc were stocked with sheep.
"Since 1987 and the demise of the wool floor price, cropping has probably stacked up better than sheep and wool.
"So we've had nearly 20 years where cropping has been a big part of the Kojonup farmer's income."
Mr Capper said as the younger generation started to have more say on the family farm, cropping programs needed to be maintained in order to cover capital costs pumped into air seeders and harvesters.
"It's an article farmers have to substantiate and there's a full generation of young men and women who missed out on sheep because prices weren't there and it simply wasn't viable," Mr Capper said.
"It's a generational thing and it was a blessing in disguise when we had the axing of the floor price because farmers went out and learned how to grow a decent crop.
"And now they don't have all their eggs in one basket, so to speak."
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