AIRYOLLAND DUTCH TEXELS

History of the Airyolland flock.

Our Dutch Texel flock was established in 2001. The first Dutch bred ewes came in with our restocking program that involved importing ewes from Belgium.  The bloodlines of some of those ewes were totally Dutch so semen was imported from Martin Van Aken's flock in Holland to keep those genetics going. Each year we look to use a tup with pure Dutch genetics to keep the flock  distinct from our Beltex flock.
The size of the flock is still quite small but we hope to continue to build up numbers over the coming years.   We have over the last few years sold a number of Dutch bred shearlings at Kelso with some success.  The buyers have come back looking for more on every occasion.

Dutch Texel Sale Carlisle 2011.
We had 3 Dutch Texel shearling rams at the Dutch Texel sale at Carlisle on 5th September 2011.

 Dutch Texel Sale 2010.

Due to the demand for the breed Sylvia Rawlings (Wiston) and Sandy Matthew (Stoneygate)  organised a sale of pure Dutch Texels on 6th September 2010 at Carlisle. We entered seven (pictured above and right) of our Dutch Texel shearlings for sale. Therefore we did not take our usual consignment of Dutch Texel shearlings to Kelso in September. Our shearlings sold to a top price of 800gns and averaged 520gns for the seven.

Dutch Texel enthusiasts Iain Smith and son Peter  purchased our pen leader and 2nd prize ram in the shearling section of the pre sale show for 800gns to join their flock at Kirriemuir in Angus. We also managed to purchase a tup lamb Thacka Rootin' Tootin' (pictured below) for 520gns.

Thacka Rootin' Tootin'

Lambing 2010 In 2009 We used our homebred tup Airyolland Oscar. We are very pleased with his progeny (pictured below) which will be for sale in 2011.

Lambs sired by Airyolland Oscar

.Airyolland Oscar with two homebred ewes.

Two  homebred gimmers. Retained for stock, 2009

Kelso
Dutch Texels were in demand again at Kelso  in 2008.  

The five shearlings rams that we sold there averaged £886 and to a top price of £2100.  Proving once again that there is very strong commercial demand for this type of Texel.

James Whiteford from Tercrosset Farm bid to £2100 to secure our third shearling into the ring. 

 AMN07 006 Airyolland Nemo was by a Weekfield sire SRW04 093. This sire bred by Robin Slade, which was loaned to us by John Hall from Inglewood Edge,  was got by a Dutch ram from the famous Van Aken flock.  Nemo is a very active ram with good length  and excellent gigots .

John Hall also bought back some of this breeding when his daughter Joanne Skelton secured our first ram into the ring, at £700, for the Inglewood Edge flock.  AMN07 001 Airyolland Nimrod was used at home as a lamb he is a very large and powerful ram with great length.  He was also sired by the Weekfield sire and out of a homebred ewe  AMN05 120.

Dutch Texel enthusiasts Iain Smith, son Peter and father in-law Donald returned again this year to purchase another out of the pen to join their flock at Kirriemuir in Angus.

Airyolland NEMO  £2100
Purchased by James Whiteford, Tercrosset Farm, Brampton
 

Kelso 2006
Having previously sold our Dutch Texels at Kelso as unregistered Beltex we decided in 2006 to enter them, in their own right, as registered Dutch Texels. They were the only Dutch Texels in their section at this multi-breed sale and we were first to be sold in ring 2 on the bell. Their presence, attracted a fair bit of attention so much so that the Scottish Farmer took the photo, at the top of this section, of the crowd that had gathered to see this breed's first appearance at Kelso.  Trade was brisk and we sold to a top of £2000, a record price for a Dutch Texel shearling at that time and averaged £1270 for 4 sold. This tup, selling for £2000 to Colin and Bruce Mair, Muiresk, was Turbo Jock son AMN05 107 Airyolland Lethal Weapon,  whose dam was homebred ewe AMN03 51 out of a Van Aken sire. 

Ewe with lambs	Ewe with lamb	Ewe with lamb