Most Improved Flock 2019

Fit, Functional, Fast growing sheep with Figures

It was inevitable that I ended up breeding Texels. My dad Alex had Texels around as long as I can remember. I purchased my first ewes in 1999 from John Madden’s sale in Hilton Park and ran them alongside dad’s Alepat flock. By 2004 my flock had grown to 12 ewes and Trojan Texels was established.

In the early years we did a lot of showing. The high point coming in 2007 when our senior stock ram Ballydonaghy Kunneyfunt became All Ireland Champion. Kunneyfunt went on to secure 11 Texel and 2 interbreed championships. Not only a champion show sheep, he was also a consistent breeder and appears in most of our female ancestry.

In 2009 we joined Sheep Ireland.  With work and study commitments we eased off on the showing circuit. We increased focus on commercial traits, producing “fit, functional, fast growing sheep with figures”.

Our breeding programme is as nature intended, ewes are run with teasers and then served naturally using 4 to 5 service sires. Despite my flock being on the smaller side I’m able to use 4 or 5 top sires as I share them with my dad’s flock, the three Ryan flocks in Kildare and Johnny Donohue’s flock in Kilkenny. We can still mate all naturally as the other flocks lamb later in the season. Another benefit of sharing rams is being linked to other quality Sheep Ireland flocks, increasing accuracy figures for all traits and producing high star rated rams for sale and replacement females.

We are very proud to have been awarded “Most Improved Flock” across all breeds in the Sheep Ireland Programme 2019. Since joining Sheep Ireland in 2009 we have recorded data accurately. When picking new sires we place importance on Sheep Ireland star ratings without compromising on traits necessary for our breeding programme. Most of our rams are sold at home to repeat customers, commercial farmers for whom an ‘easy lambing’ head is an essential trait.

Helping us to achieve all this, our most recent sires, Hilcrest Yeovil, Foundry Achilles and Derrylahan Big Balls.

The Sheep Ireland sale in Tullamore is for us, our main sale and where we target our best rams. In recent years this has proven difficult as more repeat customers arrive to the farm earlier in the season in the hope of purchasing our best rams.

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Texel lambs prove perfect for the Keane’s for their butcher shop, “The Texel breed has come on leaps and bounds in the last number of years due to their ability to reach heavier weights with sufficient carcass cover but remaining lean. The Texel is renowned for their larger legs and a greater eye muscle, both traits which we would be looking for in our killing lambs”. The Keanes supply many local restaurants and hotels that require larger cuts of meat. “The Texel carcass has the perfect balance, the loin is the most valuable cut and the Texel provides a length and depth of loin that other breeds can’t compete with”.

Having seen the huge benefits that the Texel sheep possess Shane and David established a Pedigree Texel flock each in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Not alone are the Texel’s doing the business on the pedigree side of the farm, they also run a commercial flock of Texel x ewes. Some of these are used for commercial lambs which are all slaughtered through their own shop, with the others kept for embryo transfer recipients.

Texel lambs are lively at birth, and very hardy

“We are situated near the coast and can experience harsh spring weather and find that Texel’s thrive even in the toughest of conditions, the wind and rain could be blowing in off the Atlantic and the lambs are still up looking to suck within a few minutes”. The Keane family fully intend on sticking with Texel’s, “Our future plans are to continue to improve the quality of both our commercial and pedigree flock, producing top quality lambs for our shop and pedigree rams that will hopefully go on to breed excellent quality lambs for slaughter for other commercial farmers”.

Texel Premier Show and Sale

You can talk to Shane, David and many other breeders about their positive experiences with the breed at the Texel Sheep Society Premier Show and Sale on Friday and Saturday10^th and 11^thof August at Doyle’s Mart, Blessington, Co. Wicklow. The show will take place on Friday where Judge Mr. Rodger Strawbridge will have the difficult job of sorting through what is sure to be an excellent selection, including 230 males and 70 females, to find his winners in each class and finally his champion of the show. This will be followed by a complimentary BBQ of prime Irish Texel lamb. The sale will commence at 11:00am sharp on Saturday with the females going under the hammer first, followed by shearling rams and then the ram lambs. Vendors at the sale will facilitate purchasers with transport. It is sure to be a fantastic weekend with the cream of Texel sheep in the country coming under the hammer!

For further information and enquiries: 0873552992 or Irish Texel Sheep Society on facebook.

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Zoe, who comes from a non-farming background, is currently waiting on acceptance to do the Green Cert, and in her spare time her off farm passion is weightlifting. She quickly developed a passion for the breed and all things agriculture and decided to join the Irish Texel Sheep Society and started her own pedigree flock in 2012, Mountvilla Texels. The pedigree flock consists of 20 ewes. “We are paying particular attention to selecting flock replacements and select our replacement ewe lambs early in the year.”

Zoe, with their 3-year old son Rocky, is also pro-active in the management of the commercial flock.
“Since we moved to Texel replacements, the traits that they are breeding into our flock include easier handling at lambing, greater prolificacy and less fostering due to their great mothering ability. We also find the Texel cross ewes are better value as they out live other breeds and have a higher cull value. The Texel breed has greatly increased the flock standard and encouraged my interest and love for farming with the Texel.”
The Payne’s will be buying their commercial ewe replacements at this year’s Hiltex ewe sale in Ballinrobe on Saturday 22nd August. Stock rams are purchased at the Texel Premier Sale in Blessington where, with 250 rams on offer, any buyer is guaranteed to find a Texel to suit his or her budget.

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FLOCK MANAGEMENT

The flock is run on 58 acres owned and 15 acres rented. The ewes start lambing on the 18th March and 90% of the lambing takes place within 17 days. Ewes are housed before lambing and, 4 – 5 days after lambing, they turned out to the fields. All triplet ewe lambs are marked at birth and when lamb sales start in August, if any of these marked ewe lambs are in the first or second draw, they are the ones that are retained for breeding Two years ago was Connies first time to retain Texel X ewe lambs and, from his experience so far, they make excellent mothers and their lamb crop is as good as the rest of the flock averaging two lambs each in 2008/2009.

LAMB SALES

Taking place each year, from August to December, selling to a local butcher in Macroom, Michael Twomey, who accepts lambs up to 25kg carcass weight which Michael states is the beauty about Texel X lambs. They have excellent muscling and do not go over fat at high weights.

RAM SELECTION

When Connie goes about buying his Texel rams, he has two options. First is his local Texel Sheep Society Sale which is held in Miltown, Co. Kerry and second is a visit to some local pedigree Texel breeders to buy his rams privately. In the last two years, he has paid extra attention to performance, recording figures LMI with specific attention to the growth rate index and he feels he has been well rewarded by the quality of lambs born with higher growth rates than he was used to. In future Connie says “he will use the new recording figures from Sheep Ireland (Lambplus) which is in it’s first year replacing the old LMI scheme. You can judge the ram for shape, muscling and correctness but it’s great to have the figures to let you know how his progeny will perform on the ground when you are buying rams”.

MAJOR ADVANTAGE OF USING TEXEL RAMS
•lambs have a great will to live, suckling quickly after birth, and they can handle harsh weather conditions like the spring of 2009. Hardiness: Texel cross
•cross lambs finish as quick as any other breeds. Excellent thrivers: Texel
•lambs remain a lot cleaner through out their lives compared to other breeds on the farm. Clean Lambs: Texel cross
•ewes make excellent mothers and also have a good litter size when compared to other ewe breeds on the farm. Super mothers: Texel cross

hardiness and the higher prices that can be obtained for their leanness and excellent muscling” according to Connie.

Connie runs a flock of Suffolk

X and Belclare X ewes, these ewes would also have some mountain cross (scotch) in their breeding also. Three years ago he decided to use Texel rams on his flock to see if the lambs were any hardier at birth han the breeds he was already using. He could not believe his luck when the first crop of Texel lambs were born on his farm. They were up and suckling a lot quicker than he was used to, and also, after turn out to the fields, which takes place usually around 4 days of age, the survival rate of the Texel X lambs outside this year was 100%, even at suck heights above sea level.

CONNIE

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