A PAIR of neatly-discarded socks covered in seeds and burrs found by searchers looking for missing grazier, George Ross have been sent away for DNA testing.

Local horseriders who have spent most weekends looking for Mr Ross since his car was found on Paddys Land Road east of Wards Mistake on May 1, found the socks on June 7, prompting a further search by SES crew and riders last Saturday.

Sergeant Laurie Cattell of Glen Innes police, who is in charge of the case, said the black socks were found about five metres off Paddy Ross Ridge Road, about eight kilometres north-east from where the location of Mr Ross’s car.

“Horseriders who have been out there nearly every weekend found them. The (socks) were covered in seeds and burrs, and it looks as though whoever they belonged to, was getting irritated by them, taken off their shoes to remove the socks and left them neatly together,” he said.

With no discolouration and because grass was still growing underneath, they were unlikely to have been there for no more than a month, Sergeant Cattell said.

In response to the discovery, 10 SES members and three local volunteers joined a local landholder on a quad bike and four more on horseback to search the area last Saturday. The party continued along Paddy Ross Ridge Road until the Sara River, 8km further along, in Guy Fawkes National Park.

Sergeant Cattell said police were not calling for volunteers due to the steep terrain of the immediate area.

“The landholders who have been going out know the area very well and are doing a wonderful job,” he said.

Belinda Williamson, one of the local riders involved, said some of their group would be going out again this weekend.

“There’s probably only another weekend or two left in us all, we’re running out of places to go.

“There are still a few areas we haven’t covered, and we want to do them,” Ms Williamson said.

Mr Ross, 89, went missing on April 26 after leaving his bogged farm truck, and Mrs Ross, to get another vehicle from his home, ‘Lynden’ Pinkett Road, 4km away. The next day he was sighted near Kingsgate driving his gold coloured 1999 Toyota Camry. The car was found on Paddy’s Land Road near Guy Fawkes National Park, about 100km south-east of Mr Ross’s home, on May 1.