Texel breeders take off to the UK

13-10-2008 | Not Specified

The United Kingdom and Holland were recently invaded by a small party of Kiwi Texel stud breeders.

Three weeks of full-on touring was a working holiday for the 15 Texel stud breeders who set off to the other side of the world in June.

After a stopover in Hong Kong, the group from throughout New Zealand proceeded to London for two days of sightseeing before starting the tour hosted by the British Texel Society.

NZ Texel stud breeder Derek Clarkson says the hosts organised an interesting tour and made the Kiwis more than welcome.

The first visit was to David Corfield's farm in Oxford, with a good look at his main Texel sire, which later took out the Champion Ram title at the Royal Show.

Clarkson says although Corfield's stud is not a big one, the quality is very high and also took out the champion ewe at the same show.

"Also of interest was a mob of water buffalos; they were grazing for someone who was milking a herd of them. They were very quiet and no trouble unless a pool of water appeared in the field - then their natural instincts took over," Clarkson says.

The next day the group travelled to Cambridge and stayed the night before travelling from Peterborough to Darlington by train.

"Next stop was a visit to the Nesbitt farm in Northumberland where we saw their stud that was concentrating on performance recording and producing some top stock," Clarkson says.

The following day they were shown around Gordon Gray's farm in the Scottish Borders and then a tour through the Lochcarron Woollen Mill including a weaving demonstration of traditional tartan.

After a few days sight-seeing in Edinburgh, the group went to the Royal Highland Show.

"This was a real eye-opener for us as it was hard to take in the sheer size compared with our Royal Shows here," Clarkson says.

Although the entries had been affected due to the bluetongue outbreak last year, there were still huge classes.

"The Texel breed has become the dominant terminal sire in the UK, with 2200 members of the breed society and over 26,000 registered purebred ewes, and the quality of the sheep on show was very impressive."

From Edinburgh the breeders proceeded to Loch Lomond and a tour around a hill country farm bordering the loch. This property is 4451.5ha carrying 800 Scottish Highland ewes and 50 Galloway cows.

The Carlisle stock sale impressed the group, with an impressive setup of six selling rings.

"It was interesting to note that in most cases they were receiving in pounds what we would be getting in dollars," Clarkson says.

"All the fat stock are weighed before being sold and it was obvious that the Texel lambs were receiving a considerable premium per kilo."

Next was a visit to David Williams farm in Denbighshire where several local breeders had brought stock for the Kiwi's to inspect.

This was quite an exercise for them as strict rules for moving stock meant they had to stay on the farm for seven days and nothing was allowed to leave the farm during this period. When they returned home the same rules applied there.

The Kiwis were impressed with the large contingent of Southern Wales Texel breeders gathered at Steve Smith's property to display the sheep, dog trialing and some stock judging.

After a stay at Bath and taking in the history of the city, the NZ group flew to Holland for the highlight of the tour, a visit to the Texel Island.

Two days on the island and two farm visits showed an extreme opposite to the Loch Lomond stocking rate. The first farm was just over 40.4ha and running 800 ewes. These were the traditional Dutch Texels, short and blocky and very high yielding carcases.

On one of the farms, imported English Texels were crossed with their own with outstanding results.

After achieving more than 200% lambing they were weaning at eight to nine weeks and killing the lambs at 17-18kg with growth rates averaging 480g/day.

After weaning the ewes are then milked and the milk made into cheese on site. The ewes give 2L a day and are milked through to the autumn.

"Overall I thought these sheep were the closest to our own Texels and they proved that with good genetics and good feeding they are capable of very high production," Clarkson says.

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