Pursuing breed excellence

ACM BY ALAN WELBURN

THE rise of the Dohne as a dual-purpose sheep has on­ly just begun, according to someone who knows a thing or two about the subject.

Geoff Duddy, Sheep Solu­tions, is out at Oman Ama on the road to Inglewood and is among the smartest voices when it comes to Dohnes one might ever find.

He confides that the Dohne holds numerous ad­vantages. In fact, it might be a trifle easier picking Lotto numbers than finding de­merits in the breed.

“Primarily their fertility and lamb survival compared to our traditional Merino is their biggest plus,” he said.

“Other advantages include being a true dual-purpose breed offering producers improved meat yield from an animal producing wool of similar quality to the Me­rino hardiness (ability to not only survive but reproduce) under harsh feed conditions and clean points so reduced risk of flystrike.”

He appreciates the sur­vivability traits of the Dohne and its continued enhance­ment. He believes market forces have played a key role resetting the business focus of the Dohne.

“The Dohne is, as with all breeds, continually im­proving,” he said. “Many improvements are driven by market forces such as high sheep meat values over re­cent years.

“The Dohne is well balanced (and) suited to op­timising producer returns by providing improved lambing percentages, faster growth rates to weaning and slaughter, greater selection potentials due to having greater progeny to select replacement ewes from and improvements in the wool quality and cut compared to traditional Dohnes imported 20 plus years ago.”

Couple this with, as he puts it, “continued selection” by stud and commercial breeders to improve wool quality and cut and its share of total returns and Dohnes are no longer seen purely as a meat commodity.

And the change won’t be slowing down anytime soon, he says.

“Studs are continually striving to improve as are commercial breeders. I think one of the Dohne’s strengths has been its initial WPP (Wool Production Potential) focus.” he said.

“This is where the breed aims to produce between five and eight per cent clean wool as a percentage of the mature animal’s body weight.

“Research in South Africa has shown that wool pro­duction levels that fall in this range enhance the animal’s ability to raise healthy, ro­bust lambs and maintain their fertility.

“Dohnes have good traits such as genetic fat, eye mus­cle depth, growth rate which all have positive impacts on fertility, reproduction, lamb survival, growth rates and survivability.”

POSITIVE SIGNS: Consultant Geoff Duddy believes the fertility and lamb survival of the Dohne compared to the traditional Merino is one of its greatest advantages.