It is an interesting comment given today the paddocks of his central Victorian property, Balangi, are filled with sheep and he’s enthusiastically planning for expansion.

For Mr Hocking, the introduction of Dohne sheep six years ago made all the difference.

“It comes down to money. Why stick with farming an animal where the margins are shrinking?

“With the Dohne I get premium meat prices and then the wool on top.”

Mr Hocking runs 800 Dohne ewes along with 120 Wagyu breeders on his 810-hectare Dingee property which also supports about 8 ha of irrigated lucerne for hay.

He is third generation farming stock, living in a region that has undergone massive transformation from a once dominant Merino grazing area to an intensive dairy belt supported by irrigation.

But when Mr Hocking decided to move back to the family property with his young family, he knew that to make it work he had to be able take some control of the factors he could - namely inputs and risk management.

Together with his father Keith, they put a number of terminal sires to the test, only to face the same problem of having to replenish ewe numbers.

“We had the self-replacing Merino flock but needed to get better returns from our meat portion.”

After hearing about the benefits of the dual-purpose Dohne sheep, the Hockings bought four rams from the Uardry Dohne stud at Hay, NSW, and used them over their Merino ewes.

Six years on Mr Hocking is edging towards a purebred Dohne flock of 800 ewes, and aims to double this in the years to come.

For full story see Stock & Land, October 16.