Today we had the third visit as a part of our involvement in an Industry leading project being led by the British Texel Sheep Society that is designed to  identify the genes that are significant in both mastitis and footrot.

This is important on a national flock basis (all breeds) as it has been calculated that mastitis alone (acute and sub acute) effects up to 30% of all breeding ewes. This has a massive financial impact on its own but when combined with foot rot which costs about £5 per lamb and £7 per ewe the opportunities to improve both animal welfare and profitability are significant.

As a part of our visit all of the breeding ewes were examined and measurements were taken on a range of data point that included;

• Teat length
• Teat diameter
• Udder drop
• Udder attachment
• Udder length
• Teat position rear
• Teat position side
• Udder width
• Number of teats over 1cm in length
• If udder lumps were present
• If udder lesions were present

Each ewe also had a California Milk Test (CMT) performed to identify penside if mastitis was present and milk samples were also taken to allow an accurate somatic cell count to be understood.

Also while the ewes were being inspected the feet were checked for any abnormalities and signs of footrot and anything noted was scored.

Following today our fourth and final visit has been scheduled for after weaning when the whole process will be completed again. Then all of the data collected over both of the years that the project has been running will be passed to the geneticists of SRUC who will assess it and look for correlations that will enable Genomic Estimated Breeding Values (GEBV’s) to be produced.

As a result the Kimbolton Flock will be one of the first in the UK to be able to sell sheep with GEBV’s for hard to measure health related traits.

Pictured below is Will Sawday the Technical Manager of the Texel Sheep Society performing the data collection.

In order to ensure that the ewes produced enough milk for samples it was requested that the lambs be removed an hour before Will arrived. This was duly done but I still have the headache due to the amount of noise they made!

The attached Poster explains more about the project in summary, however if you prefer more information then you can read the attached document  that has more detail.

It never ceases to amaze me how fast the lambs grow each year. Born on average weighing 5-6Kg they grow at anything up to 600g per day in exceptional cases.

It’s fantastic to see them bouncing around the shed whilst their mums are fed and it also gives a good indication that they are fit and healthy too allowing you to concentrate on the many other tasks that need to be undertaken. But they do like to sleep too!

A critical part of our breeding programme is to ensure that we select for growth and conformation as our customers want to buy sheep that can pass these traits onto their offspring. This year has so far produced some pleasing shapes with meat in all the right places as the pictures below show – not bad for three weeks old.

Of course  we also try to ensure we retain Texel breed type too so we try to also ensure they are pretty too, in that way hopefully we can keep everyone happy!

Lambing began on 13th February (slightly earlier than the intended date of 17th February!) and the ewes are in full swing now. Due to the use of Artificial Insemination (AI) we synchronise the ewes to all come on heat at the same time, this means that we can lamb them within a concentrated period of time (typically 3 days) helping us plan labour and also meaning we don’t have to endure weeks and weeks with no sleep!  For this breeding season we achieved a hold rate of almost 80% which was fantastic. This means that the 20% who didn’t hold will lamb 17 days after the first batch as they have been caught by a sweeper ram.

The pictures below show a single and a set of triplets immediately after birth, straight out of the oven!

We have been pleased with the lambs so far and we hope that they continue as they have started.

We have just completed our pregnancy scanning and are pleased to report that we scanned at 170% for the Texel’s. The AI held very well and we look forward to lambing.

For the 2016 season we used the following Rams (click on name to open the relevant BASCO page);

Kimbolton Warrior
Kimbolton Wayfarer
Kimbolton Va Va Voom
Wallington Vigilante
Kimbolton Venturer
Goldies Supreme
Wallington Special Brew

In addition we also flushed two ewes sired by Avon Vale Real Deal. PPK1400400 who is sister to Va Va Voom and PPK1400422 whose Dam  bred Kimbolton White Knight (who was sired by Va Va Voom and was the 4th highest price Texel at the Welsh National Sale 2015). Unfortunately whilst these ewes flushed very well and produced 17 embryos between them only 3 embryos seem to have held, so let’s hope there is something extra special amongst them!

We hope that the careful natural and AI mating selections result in further improvement of our already impressive genetic gains. Each pairing has been made to compliment the Sire and Dam’s strengths and address any weakness eg fat depth. As a result the lambs produced should be correct, very fast growing and well muscled whilst retaining the Texel type.

On February 17th 2016 we will know more and I look forward to seeing the effect of selecting for easy lambing first hand (hopefully between 9.00 and 17.00!)

In the meanwhile we would like to wish all our Customers and Friends a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

The Kimbolton Flock has been announced as the Champion Flock in the Gloucester & Border Counties Texel Club Flock Competition for 2015.

Adrian Windsor from the Fern Flock judged the competition back in the Summer and travelled many miles through five counties looking at a wide selection of Texel Flocks.

Speaking after hearing the news of winning Paul Phillips from the Kimbolton Flock said “I was absolutely thrilled to have won the Small Flock Category of the Flock Competition as we came second last year. However I was delighted to then learn that we had won the overall Championship as competition is always strong.”

The Kimbolton Flock has now sold out of Rams for the 2015 breeding season and the final purchases have been delivered to their new homes.

This year we completed our version of the Three Nations selling Kimbolton Valiant for 2,100gn to Stephen Cobbald’s Lavenham Flock in England, a half share of 3,000gn Kimbolton Wayfarer to Deri Morgan​ for the Tynewydd Flock in Wales and the sale of Kimbolton Va Va Voom to John Elliot​ for the Roxburgh Flock on the Scottish Borders for a significant undisclosed four figure sum.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all purchasers (and under bidders) and to wish you good luck with your breeding programme, we hope that the Boys are hard at work and at the beginning of a long and profitable relationship with you!

Kimbolton Warrrior perfecting his technique!

The Kimbolton Flock enjoyed a tremendous trade at the recent Welsh National and English National sales with strong interest from both Commercial and Pedigree breeders.

At the Welsh National trade topped at 1400gn for Kimbolton White Knight . He is the first Ram lamb to be sold by Kimbolton Va Va Voom.  This was the fourth highest priced Ram Lamb of the day and he sold to Duncan MacNiven from Glenfarg Perth.

At the English National trade topped at 2100gn for Kimbolton Valiant . He is a Shearling Ram by Wallington Special Brew who is renowned for breeding well fleshed sheep with ENORMOUS gigots.
He was the top priced Shearling Ram in the sale and was the pick of Stephen Cobbald from Suffolk for his Lavenham Flock.

At the same sale a bid of 1600gn secured Kimbolton White Gold. He is a Ram Lamb by Cambwell Trademark and is out of a Drinkstone Ewe by Drinkstone Punt Gun. He sold to R J Amphlett from Craven Arms.

A further bid of 900gn secured a very stylish and sharp looking Shearling Ewe by Avon Vale Real Deal out of a female line that goes back to Glenside Royal Male. She went home with D Morley.

We would like to thank everyone who bid and wish the purchasers the best of luck with their new additions.

If you missed out securing what you wanted please check out the latest stock list on the “For Sale” page of this site as we could still help.

The Catalogues have now been published for the first of the Pedigree Texel Sales that we are attending so I wanted to take this opportunity to summarise what we have on offer as this is a great opportunity to purchase some fantastic animals with some great EBV’s.

Welsh National Sale 29th August

• Three sharp Shearling Ewes by Special Brew and Real Deal with indexes to 388 (lots 67-91)
• Four well grown Shearling Rams by Real Deal, Spitfire and Special Brew with indexes to 367 (lots 114-117)
• Four Ram Lambs by Cambwell Trademark, Va Va Voom, Real Deal and Special Brew. with indexes to 507 (lots 235-238). This consignment includes the fifth highest index ram lamb in the breed, plus the third highest index Cambwell Trademark lamb this year (index 469)

English National Sale 31st August – 1st September

• Two  well muscled Shearling Ewes by Real Deal and Special Brew with indexes to 386 (lots 54,55)
• Five well grown Shearling Rams by Real Deal, Special Brew and Spitfire  with indexes to 462 (lots 122-126)
• Three outstanding Ram Lambs by Cambwell Trademark and Va Va Voom with indexes to 495 (lots 465-467). This includes the highest index Cambwell Trademark son being offered for sale this year whose index is currently 470.

Shropshire & Border Counties Shrewsbury Sale 5th September

• Two nice Shearling Ewes by Real Deal, Spitfire and UR The Boy with indexes to 399 (lots 149-151)
• Two nice Ram Lambs by Va Va Voom and Vanquish with indexes to 495 (9th highest index Ram Lamb so far this year) (lots 247-248)
• Two well grown shearlings by Special Brew and UR The Boy with indexes to 383 (lots 309-310)

Please feel free to get in touch to discuss these animals or to arrange to view them prior to sale day.

For a full list of all sheep for sale please visit the ” For Sale” page above. If you cant immediately find what you are looking for please make contact anyway as we may still be able to help.

The second BLUP results have been published on line today and include the results of our 21 week weights and ultrasound scanning data.

We are delighted with the results which show that our flock bred;

• 4 out of the top 11 Ram Lambs (including the 2nd placed)
• 3 out of the top 7 Ewe Lambs (including the 2nd placed)
• 3 out of the top 8 Senior ewes
• Plus Kimbolton Va Va Voom is now the second highest Senior Stock Sire in the breed (semen is available) .

Our pens at the Welsh and English National Sales will contain some of these exceptionally high index Ram Lambs. This will provide an excellent opportunity to buy into proven genetics that will deliver very fast growing lambs with the right carcase attributes.

For a full list of animals for sale this summer please see the For Sale page where you can download the latest list.

If you are looking for some quality Texel’s to purchase this year you have come to the right place!

If you go to the “For Sale” tab you will be able to download a list of animals currently for sale which represent a wide range of types with some outstanding EBV’s on offer.

Please feel free to call us to discuss your requirements, we prefer to sell straight from Farm as you have the opportunity to view the system that these animals have been produced on. This is something that we feel is very important and not something you get to see when you buy at auction.

We look forward to hearing from you.

PPK1500527 relaxing in the sun!