WHEN Ian Pilgrim first saw Dohnes at Hamilton, Vic, he was impressed.
Mr Pilgrim – who with his three brothers and two nephews farms 1780 hectares across three properties at Minimay, Vic – had been breeding prime lambs from his cast-for-age Poll Merino ewes, but saw another alternative.
"I saw these Dohnes and thought they had a clean face, good body shape and looked like the ideal easy-care sheep," he said.
"My mate went to NSW to buy Dohne rams in 2005 and when he got them, I liked the look; I waited 12 months until he had half-bred Dohnes and I thought the purebred Dohnes were meatier, so I decided to change as quickly as I could."
That was in 2006, and Mr Pilgrim quickly scrapped the idea of joining his CFA ewes to terminal sires – "I figured I could get just as good returns from the Dohnes".
He now runs about 2400 breeding ewes, mostly third- and fourth-cross Dohnes, in a self-replacing flock and last year, shore just over 5000 lambs, ewes and replacement ewes.
Additionally, the Pilgrims crop about 810ha and run fallow deer.
The results from the Dohne infusion were immediately obvious to Mr Pilgrim.
"In 2010, which was a wet year, we got 129 per cent lambing from the Dohnes, and averaged 116pc across all the ewes – that was with everything mated and none of the dry ewes taken off," he said.
"The best we had out of Poll Merinos was 126pc."
Because they have been trying to build numbers up, Mr Pilgrim said they had been keeping as many ewes as they could and not culling as hard.
"We always culled on the short wool Merino," he said.
"Now we're just getting to the fourth-cross and then we'll cull heavily.
"They breed so well, we have a lot more surplus sheep now."
* Full report in Stock Journal, July 24, 2014 issue.