Irish Blue Texel premier show and sale set for this Saturday

The Irish Blue Texel Sheep Society is set to hold its third annual premier show and sale this Saturday, August 21.

The venue for this year’s sale is once again the Showgrounds in Carrick-On-Shannon. The show is kicking off at 10:00a.m, with the sale commencing shortly after that at 12:30p.m.

On the day, 100 Blue Texel and some Dassenkop males and females will be on offer.

Speaking to Agriland ahead of the sale, the society’s secretary, Philip Crowe said: “The breed originated in Holland in the 1970s and are closely related to the Dutch Texel.

“The society here in Ireland was set up in 2018 by six like-minded breeders and now has grown to over 70 breeders.

“The success of the breed has been driven by its easy lambing characteristics combined with very hardy lambs at birth that grow quickly and muscle up after a few weeks.

“Commercial farmers comment that they can pull the Blue Texel cross lambs 5kg lighter than bigger breeds and achieve the same carcase weight.

“Commercial sheep farmers using a Blue Texel ram find the following benefits:

Easy lambing;
Hardy lambs;
More live lambs at day five;
Excellent growth and carcase grade with kill-outs of 56-57% common;
Calm, easily managed breed.

“They are excellent medium-sized ewes. The breed is very attractive and highly sought after by breeders interested in showing, both young and old.”

Dassenkop

Also included in this year’s sale will be some Dassenkop males and females.

Philip added: “This year is the first year we will have had Dassenkop sheep at our sale. The society was set up originally to register both breeds but with only small numbers of Dassenkop females available, none ever made it to our premier sale.

“This year we will have six ewe lambs and three ram lambs on offer.