Breeding Objectives
Your Guarantee of Quality
The Dohne is a dual purpose breed developed by the South African Department of Agriculture using Peppin type Merino ewes and German mutton merinos. The breeding programme was initiated in 1939 and the breed society was formed in 1966.
The introduction of the Dohne to Australia in 1998 has continued the united approach to breeding initiated in South Africa. The Australian Dohne Breeders Association was formed in Oct 2000 to provide strong and democratic grassroots breeding, education and promotion of the Dohne.
The Dohne is the only sheep breed in Australia that requires its seed stock breeders to record and use full pedigree and performance records and report across flock, performance, genetic evaluation, i.e. EBV’s and index values.
Combined with visual classing for confirmation and trueness of type by an Association appointed assessor adds to the uniqueness of this programme. The quality assurance system allows you as a breeder to select genetics with the emphasis and performance that you require for your own individual flock requirements.
All records are backed up by the Australian Dohne Breeders Association (ADBA) Quality Assurance system with each registered animal’s QA performance reported through the SGA (Sheep Genetics Australia) database and available for download. An ADBA ‘Sale Certificate’ that reports a rams pedigree and performance verifies the QA system.
Select to download the
“Understanding Dohnes ASBVs” PDF
Dohne Genetic Performance Records
– Breeding values (EBV’s)
Estimated Breeding Values describe the expected performance of the progeny of an animal and as a breeder isn’t that what you want to know.
Dohne Ram breeders produce EBV’s for major measured performance traits e.g. body weight, muscle depth, fat depth, fleece weight, fibre diameter and CV of fibre diameter.
The Dohne Index
The index summarises into one number the performance of an animal for measured traits, body weight, fleece weight, fibre diameter and CV of the fibre diameter, thus simplifying and improving the accuracy of selections.
