May Newsletter 2024

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Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the ADBA has been set for Friday, July 19 in Bendigo, to coincide with the Australian Sheep and Wool Show. Members are invited and encouraged to attend. This year the AGM will held in Dohne Merino Marquee commencing at 4:30pm. Just letting members know that this meeting will not be available via zoom.  

Australian Sheep and Wool Show
The Show and Education Committee would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank our sponsors that have come onboard this year; Elders, Shearwell, Sapien Technology, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Riverina Wool Testers, Ethical Outback Wool, Quality Wool, Central West Genetics, Fox & Lillie Rural and Australian Community Media.
We are delighted to inform you that our judges this year will be; International judge Dries Pienaar White Wools Dohne Merino Stud Eastern Cape South Africa. Australian judges; David Berrell Midgery Dohne Stud Walgett NSW, Tegan Falkner Quality Wool South Australia and associate judge Kylie Fotuaika Quality Wool South Australia.
Thank you to the following studs that have so far confirm they will be showing at this upcoming event; 
NSW: Calga, DD, Kardinia, Macquarie, Spring Valley and Uardry
South Australia: Clover Downs and Ulooloo
Victoria: Gunyado
The official Show entries are now open – Click Here to Enter
The Australian Fleece Competition is the largest fully measured fleece competition in the world, attracting more than 400 entries from 145 exhibitors. The competition is a joint effort by Nutrien Ag Solutions, the Australian Sheep Breeders Association and the Australian Wool Testing Authority which is run in conjunction with the annual Australian Sheep and Wool Show. Fleece entries are now open – Click Here to Enter
In addition, entries are open for the Dohne Marquee fleece competition. If you would like to enter the Dohne Marquee fleece competition please forward entries to secretary@dohne.com.au.
Our program this year will comprise of the following; 
Friday, Education Program – Both Longerenong College and Moama Anglican Grammar will be taking part in this program. This program was designed to educated our younger generation, with hands on experience, allowing students to be guided by sheep and wool agents on the day.
Saturday, Showing Program – Classes will include individual young and older rams and ewes, groups, pairs and also Natural Bare Breech classes. 
Across the three days at lunchtime Ethical Outback Wool will showcase their Dohne Merino garments with a daily Fashion Parade.
To view the full event program – Click Here
An informal dinner for members and sponsors will be held on the Saturday night 20 July at The Bridge Hotel, 49 Bridge Street, Bendigo. If you plan on attending this event, please RSVP to secretary@dohne.com.au.
Darren Gurnett
Convenor, ADBA Show and Education Committee

Promotional Committee
Australian Sheep and Wool Show Preview – The Australian Sheep and Wool Show is the largest event of its type in the world, attracting visitors and competitors from across Australia and international. Australian Community Media (ACM) produces and annual Australian Sheep and Wool Show Preview, this publication is as liftout in the following ACM newspapers; Stock & Land, The Land and Stock Journal. This preview guide is distributed to rural and regional Southern Australia and to visitors during the event, as well as an online e-mag to ACM digital subscribers.
As the Dohne Merino is the Feature Breed at Bendigo this year. There will be Dohne Merino Feature in this publication. Thank you to all members who have supported this publication, this feature will be a 4 page feature. All adverts need to be submitted by Friday 24 May 2024 to admin@dohne.com.au.

Dohne Data
Dohne Data Manager Brett Wilson has been successful in earning a place on the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) Australian team to shoot at the World Rimfire Championship 2024. Which will be held at Campo de Tiro de Náquera, Valencia, Spain in September this year.
The qualifying process was held across the Australian National titles and Qld state titles in 2023, with Brett qualifying for the ten-person team. Brett will be shooting in the converted Australian “A” team, with the extra funding and pressure that comes with a position on the elite team.
The event will be hosted by the organising Royal Spanish Shooting Federation on behalf of the World Benchrest Shooting Federation (WBSF) from 8 to 14 of September 2024. Brett will be traveling for this event from the 3 to 20 September 2024.
The shooting involves two competitions within the one event. After practice and settling in the first event will be the “Teams” event. Each of the three team members will shoot six targets on the first two days of competition with the scores from the 18 targets combined to find the Teams World Champion. The following two days of shooting, another six targets will decide the “Individual” championship.
The shooting is done with highly specialised Benchrest Rifles in .22 Rimfire Caliber that Brett builds himself from local Australian components and Imported parts from the USA and Italy. The rifle is designed to sit on a front rest and rear bag that supports the rifle and helps move around the target. The rifles are single shot and equipped with high power scopes (Variable 10-60 power in Brett’s case).
The target sits 50m away and has 25 scoring diagrams and several “Sighters” on the side for practice. Each diagram has the scoring values from 10 to zero with the ten ring in the middle the objective. In the very centre there is a little dot that is used to decide tie breaks if scores are equal. The Best possible target score is 250-25 and consistently shooting targets with a 250 score will be required to be in contention for the win.
International travel for an event like this will be very hard for Team Australia due to the limitations of flying with the equipment means compromises need to be made. The European teams will not need to make any compromise as most will drive to the event.
How does this affect Dohne breeders, is there is a high probability Brett will not be able to process and report the Dohne data effectively for both the of September 2024 Sheep Genetics Dohne analysis runs.
If members could please work on not submitting Dohne data for the month of September 2024, that would be greatly appreciated.
The ADBA would like to congratulate Brett on his amazing achievement, Good Luck Brett.