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!

We are proud to announce that Kimbolton Voyager has been selected as one of only six live service Texel Rams , for inclusion in this exciting project this year. Voyager was not only selected due to the accuracy of his figures and his connectedness, but also because he had the highest % muscle in the leg of all Texel lambs CT scanned in 2014. He is a son of Avon Vale Real Deal  (Top Recorded Senior Sire of 2013) out of a home bred ewe by Roxburgh Spitfire (Top Performance Recorded Ram Lamb of 2011).

Ram Compare is a two-year pilot project financed by AHDB Beef and Lamb, Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC), Quality Meat Scotland and Agrisearch, with support provided by the Sainsbury’s ‘Big Data’ Agriculture R&D Grant Scheme, Randall Parker Foods, Dunbia and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

The project is designed to trial strategies for capturing commercial data on slaughter lambs in the UK sheep industry. It will be similar to central progeny tests that are taking place in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. The first stage of the project involves developing a network of six commercial farms that will use artificial insemination (AI) and single-sire mating to produce a crop of over 500 lambs per farm per year. In the UK sheep industry the sire of slaughter lambs is not usually known, so this approach will enable sire information to be collected.

Data from their lambs will be collected through to slaughter. This data will be evaluated to see whether its inclusion in the rams’ genetic evaluations identifies differences between sires and improves their accuracy. A ranking of the tested rams, based on commercially important traits, will be generated at the end of the project in 2017.

Speaking after news of his Ram being selected was received Paul Phillips from the Kimbolton flock said “We were delighted that Voyager had been selected for inclusion in this project as there was very strong competition.  Our breeding strategy is focussed on producing superior genetics that are designed to deliver fast growing, well muscled lambs for the commercial producer. This trial, which involves organisations from right across the supply chain, provides an excellent opportunity for our genetics to be tested and directly compared to other breeds. We look forward to keeping up with developments and seeing the final outcomes”.

Well the Phantom has certainly been enjoying the spotlight in recent weeks. It wasn’t enough for him being a hit on social medial, now he is appearing  in the printed press and on You Tube too!

His newspaper career began when his picture was included in the Hereford Times along with an appeal from a Lady to find out what this “mystery breed” was.

The following week a further article appeared following an interview and this was picked up by the National Press.

Appearances in the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror and The Portsmouth News have also been followed up by his appearance on You Tube (or should that be Ewe Tube!)

We will soon be deciding where to sell the Phantom, so if you would like to buy something original and different please get in touch.

In the first BLUP run of 2015 the Kimbolton Flock has shown encouraging progress with an average lamb EBV of 405, which is an increase from 384 last year.

In almost every EBV we have shown significant improvement and it is interesting to look back and compare progress from 2009 which was when we started performance recording. The lambs we have bred this year have twice the maternal ability, growth rates and muscle depth and three times the amount of gigot than the ones bred in 2009. We know this because it has been accurately measured through the use of scanning (both ultrasound and CT). This demonstrates how quickly you can achieve genetic improvements in a breeding flock and clearly underlines why it is important to buy the right genetics for your flock.

Our customers reply on us to provide them with animals that will pass on their superior genetics and enable them to produce lambs that grow quickly and finish within specification. These simply earn them more money than lower performers.

Some of the highlights from this first run include

• Breeding three out of the top ten Ram lambs in the breed so far
• Breeding three out of the top five Ewe lambs in the breed so far
• Breeding three out of the top nine senior females in the breed
• Wallington Vigilante is now third highest senior sire in the breed
• Kimbolton Va Va Voom is now the sixth highest senior sire in the breed

We look forward to scanning and to the inclusion of the later lambing flocks data to see where we finish the year, but so far a promising start.