THERE is no silver bullet when it comes to the perfect breed of sheep, but when WA farmer Greg Moir, his son Darren and son-in-law Paul Richardson came across the Dohne, they knew they were close. “Five years ago we were sick of relying on the wool industry and went looking for a dual-purpose sheep,” Greg said. “We needed a breed that could basically look after itself and fit around our cropping program, and one of the best things about the Dohne is that they are a self replacing flock which was the main reason we decided to go into them .” “When we started in Dohnes, they were being sold for good affordable prices and we wanted to get rams quickly, so it worked out well.” Continue reading →

When the Holt family of Coonong Station at Urana received $438 per head for their scanned in lamb Dohne Merino ewes, they gave much of the credit to a marketing campaign run by 24-year-old agent Helen de Costa. The ewes were sold in AuctionsPlus' weekly national sheep sale earlier this month and the $438 pen featured 340 two-year-old Dohne ewes, scanned in lamb with a White Suffolk. The ewes were some of the 1990 Coonong sold in total, including two pens of six-year-olds, for an average of $314. Ms de Costa of H Francis and Co said their marketing campaign had included a combination of social media and print advertising, along with getting the word out in their agent network. Continue reading →

THE Dohne breed fitted the bill when brothers David and Peter Smith wanted to increase the performance of their farm's sheep program 16 years ago and the breed is still ticking all the boxes. The brothers farm 4000 hectares in north east Carnamah where they have a 70:30 mixed farming enterprise favouring cropping. They also produced pigs for 40 years but moved away from them early this year, so their full focus other than cropping is their Dohne sheep breeding program. Originally Merino breeders, the Smiths wanted to increase the profitability of their sheep and turned to the Dohne breed to achieve their aims. Continue reading →

“They are a little bit hardier, and they suited our climate and property which is semi-arid. One of the other benefits we discovered is that they wouldn’t need mulesing, ” he said. When the Dohnes were first introduced to the property, there were two joinings a year for both autumn and spring lambings. Today, however, the Dohnes just have a spring lambing. Mr Hawker said he was also impressed by the quality of the wool itself, and it seemed to have improved over time. Fibre diameter usually measures 20-micron, down slightly from the Merinos which were measuring 21- to 21.5-micron. Many of Mr Hawker’s Dohnes had recently been sold to feedlots. Continue reading →

In achieving this objective over the past five years, the Muresk Dohne flock has become a valuable part of the commercial enterprise that is now supplying animals for industry led research that is undertaken at Muresk. Farm Manager, Steve Wainewright, says the fertility and early growth are major benefits of the breed; ‘The ewes have performed brilliantly under trying conditions this season.’ Continue reading →

THE Australian sheep industry may never have been in a more unique position. Prices for sheep meat, wool and breeding ewes are at near all time highs, while flock numbers are at their lowest levels since the early 1900s. The breed's true dual purpose nature means it can take advantage of both the strong sheep and wool markets. Continue reading →