Farm Feature: Little Whisker Blue Texels
Today Janet Carson of Little Whisker Blue Texels in Northern Ireland shares her experience raising Blue Texel sheep.
In 2012 we started off with 6 pedigree Blue Texel ewes and a ram that we imported from Holland. We lambed them the following year and found them to be very docile, great mothers and easily lambed.
The breed originate from Texel Island off the coast of Northern Holland. They came about from the mating of 2 white Texel sheep that carried a recessive gene, the agouti gene, which gives the beautiful blue steely color of the fleece.
Blue Texels have a finer bone structure than the white Texel with a narrower head thus being easily lambed. Above you can see a photo of some of our sheep.
The breed originate from Texel Island off the coast of Northern Holland. They came about from the mating of 2 white Texel sheep that carried a recessive gene, the agouti gene, which gives the beautiful blue steely color of the fleece.
Blue Texels have a finer bone structure than the white Texel with a narrower head thus being easily lambed. Above you can see a photo of some of our sheep.
Raising Blue Texels for Meat
Due to their muscular shape our Blue Texels predominantly grade E or U at slaughter with a kill out percentage of 50%-53% and are a terrific terminal sire for crossbred commercial flocks.
To the right is a photo which features a carcass from a crossbred ewe mated with one of the ram lambs we sold last year. Flock Growth at Little Whisker
Our flock has now increased to 30 breeding ewes as over the last 2 years we have imported more ewe lambs, hoggets and rams from England and Holland so that we now have 4 different bloodlines.
At Little Whisker Blue Texels our aim is to keep all progeny until they are 12 months old before selecting the very best for breeding. As our flock is also of a very high health status all our progeny are eligible for export. |
Muscular Blue Texel Sheep Make Excellent Terminal Sires
Adorable Blue Texel Lambs
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To learn more about this farm you can check out www.littlewhiskerbluetexels.com. The "News" tab is regularly updated with such items as Janet & Andy's success at shows, their recent purchases, the birth of their lambs, etc.
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