Balanced Dohne takes out the supreme ribbon, with right mix of meat and wool

Article courtesy of ACM (Andrew Miller) Stock & Land​

Judge Stephen Chalmers awarded the Dohne blue ribbon to a ram belonging to Calga/Uardry, Coonamble, NSW. Video by Andrew Miller.

A Dohne with the right balance of meat and wool has won the supreme champion of the breed at this year’s Australian Sheep & Wool Show.

The ram from Calga/Uardry Dohne stud, Coonamble, NSW, won the under 1.5 years class, before going on to win supreme.

Judge Stephen Chalmers, Kerang, said he exhibited the best characteristics of the breed.

“He had a great carcase, good feet, good head – he has a lot of future,” he said.

“He has a good wool cut for a Dohne, so he has a good balance of meat and wool – just what the Dohnes are.”

Mr Chalmers said the panel had some difficulty in deciding the eventual winner, with one of the judges preferring the older ram.

“I liked the young ram, but we came to a decision and that’s what judging is about,” he said.

“There were a lot of good sheep up there.”

John Nadin, Macquarie Dohnes, Ballimore, NSW, Tim Armstrong, Shearwell, Sandy Pye, Calga, Coonamble, NSW, and Jason Southwell, Calga/Uardry, Coonamble, with the supreme Dohne.​

Mr Chalmers said the supreme had a good length of body as well.

Uardry farm manager Sandy Pye said it was an honour to win the Tom Nadin Memorial Trophy for supreme exhibit.

Mr Pye said the supreme Dohne was pure Uardry, sired by UC220043, out of UC181725.

“Uardry is almost a closed stud, that’s what’s helping with the evenness of our rams,” he said.

The April 2024-drop ram had a post-weaning weight of 7.17 kilograms, a post-weaning eye muscle of 0.93 millimetres and post-weaning fat of 0.32mm.

His yearling clean fleece weight was 12.18 per cent, yearling fleece depth was 0.27 and Dohne index was 186.92.

“I am looking forward to seeing what he does in the future with our genetics,” Mr Pye said.

“We will use him with our stud joining, coming up in November, and we might even cross him with some of our other families just to get that hybrid vigour.

“He was even right through from the shoulders right to the back.

“He had that lustrous wool, the variation of the crimp was even right through, even through the pin bones.

“He’s got that traditional Dohne barrel, which is what we breed for.”

Mr Chalmers said the judging panel chose the Macquarie stud’s older ewe as grand champion female, although the younger animal had “a good future”.

“The younger ewe has a beautiful, feminine face and a little bit more coverage than the older ewe,” Mr Chalmers said.

“She looks like she could grow into a longer ewe.

“But on the day, and that’s when we are judging, not next year, we went for the older ewe.”