Irish Texel Yearbook 2018

James started to buy his replacements 5 years ago at the annual sale in Ballinrobe and has been returning every year since. James spoke with great enthusiasm about the Hilltex ewes and plans to continue going to the sale in the future for all his replacements. Having been farming for over 50 years in Moher West he believes he has now found a perfect ewe for his system.

“These ewes are constantly impressing me year on year. In my opinion they are the ideal maternal ewe, hardy and easy to keep, not too big allowing for higher stocking rates, docile to work with and as you get on in years you learn that it is very important to find a ewe that suits your system and requires minimal labour but still provides exceptional quality” The ewes scanned very well this year. With an impressive 1.78 lambs per ewe joined with the ram. This was no surprise to James as he stated they were constantly achieving such scans. “This is one of my favourite things about the Hiltex ewes. They are a very fertile ewe producing plenty of lambs without the large numbers of triplets associated with other maternal breeds.

I only let out the ram for 32 days and then take him away to reduce the lambing spread. I have only 3 barren ewes this year out of 172. I can’t complain about that” Lambing usually starts on the 17th of March on Bennett’s farm, however, James made the decision to push that back until the 28th this year. Something he is very happy with following the terrible winter we just encountered.

All lambing takes place outdoors, something that proves the Hilltex ewe processes superior mothering ability while carrying the great get up and go associated with the Texel breed through to her lambs. “I start feeding 75