NEWS

21st January 2010

Gordon Graham’s Help the Heroes In-Lamb

Gordon Graham of the Kypeview flock sold his Duiisdeer Nimrod / Carran Jackie Chan daughter, a previous winner of the inter-breed Champion at the Stonehouse Show in 2007 for the Help the Heroes fund at the Scottish National Texel In-Lamb sale in Lanark. She sold in-lamb to the 8000gns Procter’s Playboy, to Scott Rorision of Patna on behalf of his fathers business Euroscot Engineering. Another £400 was raised by the sale of a complete set of Texel Journals, these were donated by Laine Daff of Uplawmoor and sold to John Howard of the Quercus Texel flock in Northallerton.

Missing Sheep

The 12 ewes that went missing back in November were found earlier this month. A small holder living just 15 miles away found them wandering near his property, after discussing with a neighbor and hearing of the issue reported on the Texel site owner, Diane Evans was contacted. She thanked the Society and its members for their assistance and well wishes, although the lambs are still missing she is very glad to have at least some of her flock back

Missing Sheep

17th – 18th November 2009

Between 7pm and 7am 12 pedigree Texel in-lamb ewes and 6 ewe lambs went missing from Dryslwyn, nr Carmarthen. Some of the ewes may have tattoos and scrapie boluses in them. The tattoo mark would be DCW. If anyone has any information or been offered any in-lamb ewes privately since these dates please contact Diane Evans of the Whitland Flock via email drevans@dryslwyn.fsbusiness.co.uk. A reward is offered for any information to their whereabouts.

CT Scanning Questionnaire

If you reside in England and used the CT Scanning service in 2009 please assist SAC in establishing whether they can continue to offer CT at more than one site in the by completing the short questionnaire below.

CT Questionnaire (42k)

26th November 2009

Borders pair recognised as trophy goes south

Two borders farmers at the forefront of promoting the use of performance recording in animal breeding have been awarded at the Royal Highland Winter Fair.

Arnold Park from Drinkstone at Hawick and Richard Oates from Billerwell, Bonchester Bridge were today awarded the Johnstone Carmichael Trophy by the Scottish Sheep Strategy at the event in Ingliston.

The trophy, sponsored by Accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael, is awarded annually by Strategy to the person or persons who have raised the profile of performance recording in Scotland.

Both of this year’s winners have gained an international reputation for having their priorities firmly set on commercial attributes when developing their breeding programmes.

With a background in dairy farming in Cumbria and pig farming in Yorkshire, Arnold gained an understanding of genetics which put him in good stead when he moved into sheep production at Drinkstone in 1991. This 1300 acre upland farm is home to an 850 ewe Blackfaced flock, a 120 ewe Texel Flock, a 100 ewe Suffolk Flock and a small flock of Bluefaced Leicester’s.

The Parks have had the top index Suffolk ram lamb in five of the last 10 years, they have previously had the top index Texel and this year had the second and third top index Texel. International interest in their good flock genetics has meant that this year alone they have has exported semen to Canada, Italy, Romania, Norway and Sweden as well as the live rams to Hungary.

Richard Oates, who now farms a 350 acre upland farm at Bonchester Bridge, originally got involved with performance recording when he farmed at Lumbylaw near Alnwick. The Lumbylaw Limousin herd and the Texel flock were renowned for producing top quality animals with extremely high performance figures. The Recorded Limousin Herd won the breed championships at both the Royal Highland and the Royal Shows as well as winning the interbreed at the Royal Highland.

Richard was chairman of the Texel Recording Members Group from 1991 until 2000 and was very heavily involved in the development of C.T. Scanning. He is a strong advocate of two stage selection, on farm scanning to identify the top ram lambs and then C.T. Scanning to find the very best animals each year

The Texel flock was the top performance flock in both 2007 and 2008 and produced five of the top rated stock sires in 2008.

Rod McKenzie, Development Manager of the Scottish Sheep Strategy, said “We are so fortunate in Scotland to have men of the calibre and experience of Richard and Arnold.
“They have proved time and again that the key to financial success in livestock production is within our grasp. Identification and use of the best genetics, combined with good stockmanship will give people the results they require to make a good living.
“2013 is rapidly approaching and these two gentlemen have shown us all how it is quite possible to have a sheep enterprise which is independent and does not rely on subsidies to make it pay. The knowledge, science and information is out there and the industry would be better and fitter if it made us of the available technology and followed the example of these forward thinking men.”

Last year’s Johnston Carmichael Trophy was awarded to the Lennox family at Shantron, overlooking Loch Lomond, who were recognised for maximising the possible returns from their sheep and minimising inputs – mainly purchased feed and labour – through identification of animals with superior genetics.

For more information about the Sheep strategy, visit www.scottishsheepstrategy.org.uk

3rd November 2009

Prime Stock Show Sponsorship 2009/10

The Texel Sheep Society have made available up to £4,000 of sponsorship to support and encourage members to enter at these Primestock Show Events.

29 October 2009

Bluetongue in Europe - changes to post import testing requirements

As from 2 November 2009 all bluetongue susceptible animals imported into Great Britain from continental Europe and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey should be post import tested only once, 5-7 days after import.

download Customer Information Notes - AI/09/121

Semen Directory

Dear Texel Sheep Breeder

I am extremely pleased that the Society has produced the 10th Volume of the “British Texel Society Semen Directory”.

The aim of the production is to assist members in the promotion of ram semen from their superior stock rams. It also allows interested parties to select from a variety of breeders and rams from a single Directory. The added value of this Directory is that all rams are advertised along with the latest Performance Recorded Data (EBV’s - Estimated Breeding Values) supplied by the BASCO Data Ltd.

The Society aims are progressive and as such we will develop future Volumes of the Semen Directory as demand increases for the supply of British Texel semen to the Industry.

I wish you every success with your British Texel flock.

Kind Regards

John Yates
Chief Executive

	Semen Directory 2009
NOTE: The Semen Directory pdf is a very large file (5.4MB) Please click ONCE and wait for the file to download fully.

Tophill Joe

The top priced British Texel ever sold, Tophill Joe (£128,000) recent death reported by BBC National News.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8191563.stm

Duncan Gill Obituary
Duncan Gill’s funeral was held at Fortrose – Easter Ross on Wednesday 14th January 2009 following his death after a year long illness, attracting a large attendance of mourners. [more]

Jim Currie Obituary
As you travel through life, you occasionally meet real characters who leave a lasting impression on you. Big Jim was just such a person. A big man, with a big heart, whose high standards and generosity were his hallmark. [more]

Royal Smithfield Club's New Chairman - Mr John Campbell
The Royal Smithfield Club is delighted to announce the appointment of the Club Chairman for 2009 and 2010. [more]

Genetic Signposts – New ways to find healthier, more productive sheepNew research into “genetic signposts” that point the way to better health and welfare offers the promise of major productivity benefits to the sheep industry. Until recently it has only been possible to test for single genes affecting animal performance -such as scrapie resistance. [more]

Scrapie
Closure of the Defra-Administered Scrapie Monitoring Scheme and start of the Scottish Agricultural College Scrapie Monitoiring Scheme.

download scan of letter received from Animal Health