NORTH Kellerberrin farmer Gavin Morgan describes the Dohne as the true dual-purpose sheep.
Making a change to their traditional 1000 head self-replacing Merino ewe flock several years ago, Gavin with his wife Alison and two children Alexander and Rebecca, decided to mate their initial drop of first-cross Dohne ewes and a proportion of their Merino ewes to Dohne rams, as a trial.
The decision to travel down the Dohne path was in 2004 when Gavin heard a few farmers were getting great results when using the breed.
So he made his first purchase of rams from the Glenlea Dohne stud, Katanning.
"We were chasing a dual-purpose sheep," he said. "One that was going to be strong and hardy in poorer seasons.
"We were more than happy with the trial results we received, with the Dohne first-cross ewes achieving 20 per cent more lambs marked and recording a body score heavier compared to the Merino ewes when run in the same paddock under the same management conditions."
Today the Dohne breed has made the Morgan family's sheep enterprise a much more productive, profitable and low maintenance one.
They currently farm 2000 hectares on their Kailoa property and run 1350 Dohne-Merino cross ewes, of which 300 are mated to South Suffolk rams.
The Morgans designate 30pc of their farm to livestock while the remaining 70pc is put into wheat, lupin and barley crops.
"We have been improving our pastures over the years by sowing sub-clover and biseralla as a legume break for our cereal program," Gavin said.
"We then run the sheep on the new and improved pastures."
Taking full advantage of the Dohne cross ewe, Gavin and his family don't sell any of the hogget ewes but instead keep them all as future breeders.
Gavin said the majority go into the nucleus flock of 1000 head, but if they do not meet the criteria for wool type and body structure, they are put into a smaller flock of 300 head where they are joined to South Suffolk rams.
"As they reach hoggets, the nucleus ewes are graded into wool types and are run in a mob of 300 or less and joined to Dohne rams which best suit each flock accordingly," he said.
"I finetune the breeding, as I'm selecting the heavier cutting rams to be joined to the lighter cutting ewes to maintain our wool weights."
When it comes to selecting Dohne genetics, the Morgan family now look no further than Ian and Stephanie Longmuir, Mollerin Rock Dohne stud, Koorda.
Gavin complimented the Longmuirs on the even line-up of rams they offered their clients over the last five years.
"I like the fact we can purchase good rams locally, as they adapt better to our local conditions," he said.
"I look for the rams that have heavy cutting, free-growing wool and clean, open faces."
The Dohne rams are joined to the Dohne cross ewes on January 26 at 1.5pc and are run with them for a six weeks period (two cycles).
With mating starting in late January, this means the Morgans' ewes start lambing in July which Gavin said was later than the normal lambing time in their area.
"We lamb in July as this better matches the Merino ewe's breeding cycle, resulting in improved lambing percentages," he said.
"We teeth grind our ewes at three to four years of age which helps them maintain their bodyweight and it also allows us to get a couple of more lambs out of them."
The reasonable season last year and the winter lambing saw the Morgan family achieve a 127pc lambing rate.
"I was very pleased with our lambing percentage, but I am not necessarily chasing more twins, rather less empty ewes," Gavin said.
When it comes to selling their lambs, the majority of the South Suffolk crossbred lambs are sold in September as suckers while the Dohne cross lambs are often sold at 10 months, out of the feedlot, off EasyOne pellets and directly through the Tammin abattoir.
Last season they sold 425 Dohne cross wether lambs through the Tammin abattoir which averaged 26.5kg dressweight and returned $155.50 a head.
Gavin said he was pleased with last season's price but this season the market was chasing lighter lambs therefore he will be turning them off much earlier.
"I don't expect the price to be as high as last year's figure but I do hope to get good returns for them," he said.
"Butchers seem to be very happy with the Dohne and Dohne cross lambs as the price rarely differs when we sell our South Suffolk crossbred lambs."
Dohne lambs come out small but Gavin certainly believes they grow rapidly, making for ease of lambing.
"They really are a true dual-purpose sheep as they not only give you a marketable meaty lamb but have got the quality in their wool like the Merino does," Gavin said.
The wool component of their enterprise clearly remains another source of income for the Morgan family, with their adult Dohne cross ewes cutting an average of 6kg and 20 microns in early November.
Gavin said his goal was to maintain the wool cut and a lambing percentage of 1.2 lambs a ewe.
"I would really like to see stability in the wool and meat industries," he said.
"If the industry wants to see a rise and achieve some stability in sheep numbers throughout the State, we the producer need market signals that show some consistency."
