A balanced approach pays off

Article courtesy of ACM (Kylie Nicholls) The Land, Stock & Land and Stock Journal.

INSTRUMENTAL in the development of the Doh­ne in Australia, Macquarie stud co-principal John Nadin is keen to promote the attributes of the breed to a wider audience at this year’s Australian Sheep & Wool
Show.
Travelling from their stud’s base at Ballimore, NSW, the Nadin family have been bringing Dohnes to Bendigo for more than 20 years, initially as a stud display, before show classes were introduced for the breed in 2016.
“In the early years of going there, I would run into commercial producers I knew from Queensland, South Australia and western NSW, who were all going 10 Bendi­go because just about every stud and every breed was represented,” Mr Nadin said. “There’s no doubt the AS­WS gives you the best bang for your buck as well as providing the perfect industry benchmark for your sheep.”
The Macquarie Dohne stud was established in 2000 with a 50 per cent share in the first embryos imported from South Africa into eastern Australia.
Now one of the largest Dohne studs in the country, the Nadin family currently run 1500 registered ewes, selling about 500 rams each year to clients stretching from the far-west pastoral zones of NSW and Queensland to Tasmania in the south.
According to Mr Nadin, the stud’s key phenotypes of structure, including feet and legs, wool quality and width and depth of body is the result of many years of visual selection and that focus had not changed.
“Our breeding objectives revolve around producing a consistent type of Dohne which will handle a range of environments,” he said.
“We don’t use any performance figures in our initial selection as I think it actually distorts your view.
“This goes for their pedigree as well, we’ll have nothing in front of us bar the sheep, I may take their age into consideration but that’s all, foremost I’m breeding sheep, not figures.
“We will then use Australian Sheep Breeding Values to finetune our final selection.”
Artificial insemination and embryo transfer, carried out by stud co-principal Greg Mccann, is used to fast-track the rate of genetic gain in the Macquarie flock, while Mr Nadin said long-time stud classer James Koster has also played a key role in the progress of their stud.
With the Dohne Merino the feature breed at the ASWS this year, Mr Nadin is bringing a large team of about 30 rams and ewes to Bendigo, in a range of age groups, from 2019-drop to 2023 drop, and fitting both the March and June-shorn classes.
“I’m pleased with how they are looking, the 2023-drops are probably a bit behind because it was so dry when they were lambs and weaners last year,” he said.
“But since Christmas we’ve had some good summer rains which have given them a boost.”
During the past seven years of showing in Bendi­go, Macquarie has collected many of the event’s top broad ribbons, with a stud highlight winning the su­preme champion Dohne in 2016 and again last year.
“There’s only ever been two supreme champions awarded at Bendigo because there’s only been two years we’ve had ewes as well and Macquarie has won both of them,” Mr Nadin said.
“In the Dohne 6-8 months fleece class, which is judged on consistency, uniformity of type and quality, we’ve won the best group of three fleeces five years in a row, so that’s a big one for us.”
The stud is also testing its genetics in sire evaluation trials at Coonong Station, Urana, NSW, Trangie, NSW, and Balmoral.

Macquarie Dohne stud co-principal John Nadin, Ballimore, NSW, has enjoyed plenty of success over the years at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show.