Winter Fairs & Primestock Show 2012 exel sired lambs were once again at the top end of the line at a number of the major winter fairs last year, with the highlight of the season being a pair of Texel lambs taking the supreme championship at the Royal Highland Winter Fair, Ingliston, Edinburgh.
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Winter Fairs
Flying the flag for the breed in another strong show of lambs at the event were a pair from leading winter primestock enthusiasts, the Hall family, Inglewood Edge, Carlisle. This 102kg pair, turned out by Jonathan Aiken, are sired by a Turbo tup bred by Jan Rodenburg and made it the fourth championship at the event for the Hall family. The Hall family reigned supreme in both the Texel classes of the day, taking the lightweight class with a pair weighing 88kg and the heavyweight class with a overall champion pair which weighed in at 102kg.
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Second place in both classes fell to Douganhill Farms, with their second prize lightweight pair weighing 86kg and their second prize heavyweight pair coming in at 91kg. Meanwhile, at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair, Builth Wells, a Texel sired carcass from Carmarthenshire-based regular prize winner Adrian Windsor took the reserve overall championship in the Royal Welsh Winter Fair’s single carcass competition. Mr Windsor’s carcass, from a homebred lamb, graded E3L at 20kg. In the live lamb classes the winners of the purebred Texel class were a pair of 95kg
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lambs from Steve and Sara Gibbons, HayOn-Wye, with second spot going to John Hall and family, Carlisle, with a pair which weighed in at 102kg. And Texel sired lambs enjoyed success in the Butchers’ Lamb section too picking up three class wins for three different exhibitors. Regular show winner Robin Slade was the first of the day to win with his pair of Texel sired lambs weighing 67kg. Then Philip and Carol Houldey won the class for pairs from 91-100kg with their 92kg brace and finally Stuart and Jenny Clatworthy won the untrimmed class with an 83.5kg pair of Texel sired lambs. And Texel genetics were once again to the fore at the English Winter Fair, Stafford, with Herefordshire-based Robin Slade enjoying unprecedented success in the event’s Live/Dead competition, collecting the championship for a record 13th time. Winning this year for Mr Slade were a trio of homebred lambs. Mr Slade said the success was down to new Texel genetics imported from Holland last year which had helped add extra gigot shape to this year’s crop of lambs. Dutch-type Texels were also behind Somerset-based Stuart and Jen Clatworthy’s reserve championship winning carcass. Their winner was a 21.3kg, E3 graded Dutch Texel carcass. Top spot in the purebred Texel pairs class was taken by David and Linda Wadland, Northamptonshire, with Steve and Sara Gibbons second and Robin Slade third. And