Featured Farms » Texels Beat Them All

According to Peadar Kearney of Ferraghs, Louth, you won’t beat Texels. Peadar is farming an all-sheep enterprise on a Reps farm in the heart of Co. Louth. 

The ewes are lambed down in January and March with the ewe lambs lambing in April. Ewes are housed for a few weeks before lambing and, once they lamb, they are turned out to the fields in batches. The January lambing ewes are let out to grass that is saved from the previous October with the March and April ewes following on afterwards.

When faced with the problem this year in the lamb trade of poor prices, Peadar decided to push his lambs to the maximum weights that he is allowed to sell through the Monaghan Lamb Producer Group. It is through this selling system that Peadar has actually received more for his lambs per head than last year, while meal feeding costs remain the same.

Many breeds of rams have been used in the past but, according to Peadar, only one breed of ram suits the job for high weights and that is Texel. The lambs remain lean up to very high weights (even on one occasion when he missed a week that lambs were not sold, the following week some of these lambs hit the scales at over 24kg carcass weight and they still scored lean at these high weights).

Lambing started in 2007 on January 11th with first lambs selling on April 13th. That year, 140 of the January lambs sold before May 10th selling at €99 per head and all lambs from January/ March lambing ewes had been sold (with the exception of 18) by July 20th to average take home price of €90.50.

RAM SELECTION

Peadar’s system of selling heavy lean lambs goes down to his ram selection. He states that he was introduced to Performance Recording (LMI) in the ram business by the late Gerard Murphy of Clogherhead, a local Texel Breeder, in 2004 and, to this day, he would not buy any breed of ram without performance figures such is the success he has had with them. He also states that despite the claims of many breeds, the only breed that can be used for this system of selling heavy lean lambs, is Texel from his experience.

As Peadar looks back at the performance of his 2007 crop, he points out some of the features that he likes about using Texel rams:

• Texel cross lambs are turned out after their first feed (with other breeds, it depends on the weather).
• Very hardy; can suckle without assistance (when he sees a ewe after lambing Texel lambs he knows that they will suckle themselves).
• Super clean lambs (many lambs sold without drenching).
• Higher weights without going over fat.
• Texel cross ewe lambs make great ewes.
• Top grades 75% U’s & 25% R’s. 

Peadar concludes that as he prepares his January lambing ewe flock that are currently running with teasers (a system that works extremely well for him – 88 ewes lambing in their first cycle last year in January) he will be using only one breed of ram with them this year and that will be TEXEL because through his selection of rams with good LMI’s, he achieves higher prices.

Date Published: 31/08/2007