RUNNING sheep in the scrubby rangeland country north of Leeton, in the Riverina, is not for the faint-hearted.
With an unreliable 400mm rainfall, the rocky sandstone hills support native grasses, white cypress pine, kurrajong and an abundance of kangaroos.
- AT A GLANCE
- Who: John Evans
- What: Dohnes take over.
- Why: lambs are profit
- Where: Leeton
- Report: KIM WOODS
Once the grasses have died off in summer, Merino sheep find it pretty tough going.
John Evans and his partner, Diana Martyka, farm 1331ha of rangeland and open country - 202ha of which is arable - at Brobenah.
They run a commercial flock of 220 Dohne-cross breeding ewes in the hills and 70 purebred stud ewes on the open paddocks.
In the past, John was hesitant to graze Merinos over the summer in the hills until they were two tooth or older.
"Otherwise I would end up losing half of them - it was just too tough," John said.
"So we used to get the sheep out in mid October to avoid grass seeds and put them back as off-shears in January-February.
"It is not as tough as shaley ironbark country and the grazing in good seasons can be terrific. But, come summer, the soil crumbles to nothing and the feed dries up."
Almost a decade ago, John knew his wool-growing enterprise needed more market flexibility.
He wanted adult sheep carrying bright, white and soft-handling wool with an average micron below 21, on a structurally sound frame.
John was chasing higher lambing percentages and wanted to minimise fly control.
He also wanted early-maturing lambs reaching 50-60kg liveweight in less than seven months.
The naturally polled, plain-bodied, dual-purpose Dohne breed ticked all the boxes.
A fourth-generation farmer, John's family had tried Merino, Corriedale, crossbred and Polwarth sheep in the past.
He found the Dohnes had foraging ability, early maturity and suited the country and target markets.
Today the farm supports the Coleslea Dohne stud, with purebred ewes averaging 19.5 micron and cutting 5-5.5kg of wool.
In October, John turned off seven-month-old Dohne-cross lambs at 48kg liveweight for $87, after cutting $12 worth of wool.
His emphasis is on carcass without compromising wool style and quality.
As a young shearer, John was a dyed-in-the wool Merino man.
In the early 1980s, he was impressed by the Egelabra-blood sheep's resistance to fleece rot while shearing at the stud at Warren, in central NSW.
He bought a pure Egalabra-blood flock of 400 ewes in the early 1990s.
John knew nothing of Dohnes when he was asked to shear some purebred ewes in 2002.
He began a trial with Dohnes using a ram bought from the Uardry stud that year.
"I joined that ram to 298 mixed-age Merino ewes and marked 292 lambs," he said.
"I was surprised at the result - the lambs were small at birth but just exploded.
"In the first year, I was able to sell the Dohne-cross wether portion over-the-hooks at 11 months for $90.
"I had gone from selling wethers at 18 months to 11 months, and made $40-$50 a head more."
This was narrowed down to seven months with the second-cross lambs.
John was so impressed he encouraged others to switch.
"They are an easy care animal - the only time I use fly control is at lamb marking," he said.
"Our commercial sheep run in 809ha of scrub and we don't have to go near them. The F1 Dohne ewes are cutting 3kg of wool on pretty tough country."
In 2007, John bought the complete flock of 80 sheep of the Goodenough Dohne stud at Ungarie.
