Honeyhill Texels – a new flock
Report by Sylvia Rawlings
The way to Kimbolton takes you across a broad sweep
of lowland plateau, dissected by a number of shallow
valleys. It is an empty, gently undulating landscape
with expansive views of large-scale arable farmland
growing cereals and oilseed rape. The soil is clay,
heavy and slow to warm up. This is not typical sheep
country but when you do come across a sheep it’s
inevitably a Mule and, come the autumn, tradition
dictates that it’s in the company of a Suffolk
ram.
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| John & Duncan Williams |
But according to John Williams that’s about
to change. Commercial sheep flocks in his area now
have an energetic pedigree breeder in their midst
who is optimistic about changing local traditions.
Establishing his flock in 2002 he is one of the Texel
Society’s more recent members but doesn’t
regard himself as a newcomer to the breed.
With years of experience in dairy genetics, the
formation and sale of his own company, Black and
White Sires Ltd., John’s passion for breeding
and genetics is easily understood. The Williams
also bred cattle, but with their move from nearby
Welford to Kimbolton and their son’ departure
to New Zealand the Ribbeldon herd of Charolais cattle
was sold. Now Duncan has returned he helps his father
to look after the farm and the growing flock of Texels.
When asked why he chose Texels, John, who is a tall
man with a cheerful voice delivers his reply with
flourish: “We always had sheep and kept a flock
of Mules for many years. Not a breed I get excited
about. Then we purchased our first Rouges from the
second French importation in 1988. But as far back
as 1990 I was thinking of getting into Texels but”,
- John talks in a more gloomy tone - “someone
we purchased Rouges from did a very good job of dissuading
us and we didn’t buy any. A decision I regretted
ever since.”
Pedigree sheep with a Gallic temperament probably
were the right challenge for John after the Mules.
A small number of Rouge ewes are still around and
when we tour the farm they try to lead the Texels
away from us, unsettling the whole flock. John’s
booming voice alerts Duncan who is busy in one of
the large modern sheep sheds. He soon arrives on
a quad bike and 150 Texels willingly trot towards
us up a gentle slope.
“I always liked Texels”, he says, “they
carry meat in the right places and I admire their
quiet temperament. Pointing at five Rouge making
for the distant fence: “When you’ve had
continentals as lively as the Rouge you really do
appreciate the Texel. Also, unlike some of the other
continental breeds, they have a wide genetic base.
You can go to any flock and find a connection somewhere
but it won’t be too close.”
During the summer of 2002 John’s liking for
Texels finally led him to set up his own flock. An
August edition of the Farmers Guardian carried an
advertisement for one hundred Texel shearling ewes
from the Wealden flock. John had found his flock: “The
last thing I wanted was buying a flock in bits and
pieces. Here was a chance to purchase a hundred females,
all from one source. I did some research and
discovered a lot of Annan bloodlines in the Wealden
flock”.
Shortly afterwards a second trip to Sussex secured
a further twenty females, this time from Tina Carroll’s
River flock which were bred similarly to the Wealden
ewes.
His stock tups came from the second Carlisle sale.
That’s were he spotted and liked a two shear
ram sold by the Quicks. At the time he simply followed
his instincts for that special find and snapped up Summerwood
Grand Union, a Craighead Dynamite son out of
an Annan Braveheart daughter for a “competitive” price.
A year later Grand Union became a buzzword in the
Texel world when his son, Loosebeare Imp broke the
Society’s record price for a shearling ram.
John recalls an uneventful lambing season, pointing
out that the Wealden and River flocks had been strictly
selected for easy lambing: “I have no intention
of relaxing the rule that ewes with difficulties
won’t go back to the ram next year”,
he says. “We can’t afford to breed in
lambing difficulties: as far as I am concerned the
Texel is the terminal sire for the future.
With its reputation for that get-up-and-go attitude
right from birth plus the great carcass qualities,
the commercial man is well placed to make better
money. But he is financially more cautious these
days and cannot afford to increase his costs by hiring
extra help at lambing. If you end up with a greater
numbers of live lambs on the ground which make £3-4
extra because of the ram you used, that makes that
tup a reliable and good tup and a cheap one to boot.”
Both the Wealden and River are performance recorded
flocks and the Honeyhill flock signed up as PRT member.
John explains that it would have been foolish to
discontinue a history of eighteen years of recording.
However, he is adamant that figures don’t influence
him too much when buying a ram: hopefully a ram’s
figures would just confirm his choice.
“I spent many years in dairy and beef cattle
breeding where figures are everything. I’m
not going to be an index builder, stacking index
on index. I’ve seen people who did this and
nobody actually looked at the cow. They ended up
with a lot of paperwork and no cow.”
However, John believes that it is now more important
than ever to breed rams with performance figures
which go on to commercial flocks: “Anything
that gives the buyer confidence in what he’s
buying must be the way forward”, he says. “At
the Perth sale bulls with EBVs sell for more money
than bulls without EBVs. I’m sure that eventually
good sheep with EBVs will sell better. Not just sheep
with figures, though, good sheep with figures”.
When choosing a ram for himself John looks for breed
type, a good head, length, strength, skin and plenty
of depth in the hindquarter. John enthusiastically
draws an up-side-down U in the air, “This is
what I’m looking for, not that”, and
his hands form an inverted V. He remembers
Grand Union as a ram with great shape and vitality,
which seemed to combine all those good qualities: “We
used him on half the flock and we really like his
progeny. We don’t push our lambs – they
need time to develop as our grass comes fairly late
and anyway we decided to go for the shearling ram
market. Grand Union’s offspring grew into large
shearlings, some of which we took to local shows.
We were quite successful and this has opened up some
doors. Three of his sons were at Sheep 2004, complete
with Signet figures, which helped our semen sales
quite a bit. We sold 55 tups off the farm – all
with performance data, because people were asking
for them.”
Another ram whose influence is noticeable is Haddo
Jack Russell. John rates him as a good breeder
of females. In August 2004 a trip to Lanark secured Haltcliffe
Kirk and, always on the look out for Annan
bloodlines, he also bought Alloaks Knock Out,
bred by Andrew Pinney. Because of Grand Union’s
untimely death frozen semen is used on aproportion
of Honeyhill ewes. Looking at his flock while we
stroll back to the house for coffee he talks about
his plans:
“We’ll expand the flock to about 220
ewes. Our aim is to breed rams that the commercial
man wants to come back for. If we are fortunate enough
to sell some rams to pedigree breeders, that’s
a bonus. But we’ll concentrate on the top end
of the commercial market. That might prove difficult,
and in aiming for the top, you may well settle in
the middle. But if you aim for the middle and you
miss, you end up at the bottom, and I’m not
inclined to end up at the bottom. So we keep our
aims and our standards high. The Texel has to be
a commercial meat-producing sheep. And it has to
be commercial farmer-friendly. Rams don’t need
a great big head, but they must be masculine and
muscular. Also, a ram has to last – that means
not being pushed as a ram lamb but allowed to grow
at his own pace. The commercial man has to be able
to trust the ram he buys. He needs something to improve
his income and a good ram will do that”.
We arrive back at the house, a large modern farmhouse
set in an elevated position with views across the
land. Sarah, John’s wife joins us. Sarah works
as specialist Nurse in the intensive care unit at
a local hospital. Do her obvious skills come in handy? “Rarely
needed”, says John, underlining once more his
belief in trouble free sheep: “I think the
Texel could be the ideal partner for the “easy-
care” sheep flocks we hear so much about these
days. In low input flocks, milkiness, prolificacy
and easy lambing are essential and if we can produce
rams from ewes which score well in these traits that
makes the Texel ram the perfect companion for the
modern easy-care flock”.
“Here in our area farmers are beginning to
turn to the Texel. Traditionally you would only see
Suffolk cross lambs, but now Texels are making inroads.
With more deadweight selling the farmer soon finds
out from his grading sheets where his “Es” and “Us” are
coming from.”
What about the future of sheep farming post the
mid term review, particular in the Beds and Northants
area where John lives? He believes that the traditional
estates and big farms will not revert to large-scale
flocks. Having ploughed up park- and meadowland there
is no incentive to go back to establishing grassland.
However, he believes that the smaller family farm
and their flocks will survive, provided they keep
a tight watch on their production costs. Sheep whose
performance you can rely on are the key.
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