RED meat is "everything", according to Sovereign Hill Pastoral manager Peter Rooney, and Dohnes have proven to be the perfect fit on Narmbool at Elaine, Vic, between Ballarat and Geelong.
"They're a commercial sheep you can make money out of," he said.
"Fine wool is going to go down the gurgler. The difference between a Dohne and a crossbred is the wool – it has a greater value.
"Plus, they are fertile, have good mothering ability and meat."
Mr Rooney runs about 2000 Dohne ewes on Narmbool and is now on his second- and third-crosses from a superfine Merino base.
He has been buying Dohne rams for about seven years and found the wool values and superior weight gains are hard to beat.
"I use a Dohne ram on Merino ewes and also traditional first-cross Border Leicester/Merino ewes to breed a second-cross prime lamb mother," he said.
"It's a better wool – about 23-micron, in a crossbred – and I've sold it at $2 a kilogram."
High fertility and good mothers have also made their impression on Mr Rooney.
"The Dohne has a really good milking ability and with our rising two first-cross ewes, we pregnancy tested 132 per cent in lamb – and they'd already had a lamb," he said.
The rams' vigour was also hard to match. "We can join them at 0.8pc to 1pc with the maidens and it doesn't matter – they leave our Southdowns for dead," he said.
"We put them in at score four and they come out of ewes skinny as crows, but they're serious; if you take them out they will do anything to stay with the ewes."
He has run rams at 0.5pc and still got a 90pc lambing – "their fertility is phenomenal".
"We've had maidens do 100pc twice, and we normally get around that (100pc)," he said.
"We also pregnancy test our crossies and can get to 120pc with the mature ewes."
* Full report in Stock Journal, July 24, 2014 issue.