After two decades running Mardie Station, drought has forced Richard Climas to sell every last head of cattle.
It is the first time Mr Climas has faced the heartbreaking reality of de-stocking, which he described as his "worst case scenario".
"It's pretty painful," Mr Climas said.
"What every producer dreads doing is de-stocking — selling everything.
"It's probably one of the toughest [decisions] I've had to make."
End of an era
Mr Climas' passion over the last 20 years was developing a strong breeding program for Mardie's 4,000 droughtmaster cattle.
"You need to be the best at what you are doing, and that's what we aimed at — we worked out butts off to get a really good line of cattle.
"We got them into restaurants in Perth, we did everything we wanted to do with them."
Despite it being a difficult decision to sell the stock, which are destined for greener pastures around Western Australia, Mr Climas said it was vital to make the call early.
"They've all got good homes and grass to go to," he said.
"I don't want to be here in October burying them, I'd rather them all get a feed.
"I'm very comfortable with the decision but it doesn't make it any easier to let them all go after all the breeding."
Drought grips the north
With much of northern WA struggling with drought, Mr Climas was surprised and humbled at how easy it was to find a market for his stock.
He put that down to his breeding.
"I had months of sleepless nights … but we could have sold them three times," Mr Climas said.
"I was shocked, absolutely shocked."
Even with the sales coming through, Mr Climas said it was a difficult time for his family and the staff.
"I've got a good crew around me, so we have a good laugh," he said.
"We just try and get fishing for a couple of hours once a week, and I know the cattle are going somewhere good."
No leaving the land
No decisions have been made yet as to what Mardie's future would look like, with Mr Climas believing the Pilbara was a great place for cattle trading.
"It's just a little unreliable down here, but when it's good, it's absolutely mind-blowingly good," he said.
Mr Climas and his family will spend the next few months chasing their other passion.
"I'm going campdrafting," he laughed.
"We've had a great run, we put together a great mob of cattle, and had some great people working here.
"Now we'll go to the next adventure."
