David Shields thinks about switching back to Merinos every time he shears his Dohne flock at “Worago” near Narrandera.
And then he counts up the family’s returns from sheepmeat and decides to stick with them.
Mr Shields runs a mixed farming business on 2030 hectares of red loams at Corobimilla, south of Narrandera, with his wife, Tanya, their son, Daniel, and his parents, John and Joyce.
The Shields went into Dohne Merinos based on Kardinia blood in 2004 but now buy rams from John Evans’ Coleslea Dohne stud near Leeton.
They run about 1280 Dohnes ewes with 800 joined to Dohne rams for a self-replacing flock and the rest to Almondvale-blood White Suffolks for lamb production.
They went into Dohnes in 2004 looking to strengthen the meat side of their sheep enterprise with a dual-purpose Merino. The wool market was still struggling in the wake of the floor price crash of the early 1990s.
Mr Shields said his family was seeking to “whack” more wool onto their big-framed Dohnes with the adult ewes now cutting around 5.8 kilograms of 20-21 micron fleece.
Like just about everybody else in the sheep industry, his breeding strategy involves getting more size and production into his flock but he is starting to wonder where it’s all going to end.
He says his adult Dohne ewes are now a “handful”, particularly when they have to be handled heavy in lamb.
“I’d hate to think what they weigh,” he said. “The size (of sheep) is becoming a factor.”
He sold ewes last year culled after they scanned “empty” and they weighed 42kg dressed sold over-the-hooks.
The Shields sell their lambs over-the-hooks to Coles as well as through the saleyards.
They sold Dohne wether lambs (seven to eight months old) before last Christmas for $202 a head.
Mr Shields said the family were culling ewes to lift their flock’s wool quality. “Their frame size speaks for themselves.”
He said his management of the flock revolved around the principle of doing what needed to be done on time and properly, whether that was crutching, flystrike protection, drenching or vaccinating.
The lessons from a wet harvest in 2010 when he didn’t prepare his sheep well enough for a blowfly wave haven’t been forgotten.
The Shields plant around 1000 to 1200ha of winter crops a year including wheat, canola, barley, lupins and oats
They lamb in April and shear in September.