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Texel flock kept as hobby now a valuable enterprise
PEDIGREE Texel sheep flocks founded almost 20 years ago as a hobby have proved a valuable enterprise alongside a pedigree dairy herd for a Scottish farming family.
The 417-acre Rascarrel Farm, which lies on the shores of the Solway Estuary at Auchencairn, near Castle Douglas, has been farmed by the same family for 44 years.
Tommy and Fiona MacTaggart now run the farm, having taken over from Fiona’s parents Jim and Ellice Hendry who continue to be in the partnership.
The family employs two full-time workers, tractorman Brian Wilson who has worked at Rascarrel for 13 years, and dairyman Derek Graham, whose predecessor Jim McFern was employed for 21 years.
Traditionally a dairy farm, the Texel flocks were set up in 1989 – the company’s flock bears the Rascarrel prefix while Fiona, son Matthew, 18, who is a student in rural enterprise and land management at Harper Adams University College, and triplets Ewan, Tom and Rebecca, 12, own the Auchencairn flock.
Established from 11 foundation females, there are now 85 ewes between the flocks which have been built up using mainly home-bred ewes which are run alongside the Rascarrel pedigree Holstein Friesian herd of 180 cows.
“Other than wintering sheep, we had never had any on the farm. I had always been involved with sheep through the family haulage company and my brother has pedigree Texels,” said Tommy, who for six years has been a director of the Texel Sheep Society and is immediate past chairman of the Solway and Tyne Texel Club.
“We liked the Texel because of its carcase, tremendous muscle and its ability to produce a modern export lamb.
“We have always bred the sheep for their commercial attributes, including carcase, skins and growth, aiming for the commercial market and if we are fortunate enough to get a breeder’s sheep, then that’s an added bonus.”
“What started as a hobby has grown into part of the business.”
The flock earned a reputation in the show ring with a home-bred ewe by Baltier Wizard winning the breed championship at the Royal Show in 1997 and the breed and interbreed championships at Dumfries Show in the same year.
Since then ram lambs have been sold to 12,000gns at the Carlisle September 2006 sale for Rascarrel Masterpiece. The same year, shearling rams sold to 4,600gns and an average of £1,535 for eight, marking one of the best years for the flocks.
In the flocks’ early days, one of the first sires Cambwell Uplift had a great influence in establishing the female lines. Subsequently, Turin Estonian put more bone and carcase quality into the flock and Kelton Young Gun, a son of Annan Vigour, also had a big impact on the females coming into the flocks.
The advent of the National Scrapie Plan had a regressive influence on the type of sheep the MacTaggarts were aiming to breed, with only a small pool of Group 1 rams to buy in the first few years of the scheme to improve the flocks’ ewe genotypes, 60% of which at the time were Group 3.
Stock sires for this year’s lambs are Templand Megane and Hullhouse Northern Light, which is jointly owned with Jennifer and Geoff Aiken. All the ewes are in lamb to these sires as well as to Douganhill King. There are also some embryos to lamb to Glenside King.
The dairy herd was upgraded to pedigree 14 years ago and cow numbers over recent years have increased from 120 to 180 cows.
Seventy per cent of the herd is put to the black and white bull with the remainder to the British Blue and Limousin. All crossbred cattle and pure-bred steers are finished on the farm and sold deadweight.
The herd has a rolling average production of 8,800 litres at 4% butterfat and 3.3% protein even though 60 heifers have been brought in this year to increase numbers.
Holstein Friesian sires are selected for their feet, udders and longevity as well as low cell count – the herd is currently running at between 80 and 145 SCC and milk sold is consistently in premium band A.
The current Genus sires used are Drake, Shottle, Degas, Reece, Modesto and Homestead. A stock bull, Gornall Tiptop, is used on the heifers.
The cows are milked in a Fullwood 16x16 parlour installed eight years ago and they are topped up with up to 8.5kg of cake at a rate of 0.35kg per litre. High yielders are fed at M plus 22 litres, medium yielders at M plus 18 litres and low yielders at M plus 16 litres.
Cattle and sheep are all computer recorded.
