Vicky Collison, who owns the Cooraclevin and Bluetiful Blue Texel sheep flocks, has decided to bring a selection of her own stock to the sheep tunnel of this year’s Ploughing. This will be the first time the breed will have being exhibited at the ploughing.

Blue Texel sheep are quickly gaining popularity as terminal sires for prime lamb production. Killing out at 50% to 55% liveweight, Blue Texels are proving an ideal cross with most breeds.

Ninety percent of crossbred lambs will be born white and carry much the same traits as the normal Texel.

However, the Blue Texel-cross lambs achieve premium kill-out rates, with most lambs gaining U and E grades.

The breed’s light bone and small heads mean the breed is used heavily in other countries for ewe lambs without problem.

Blue Texels are a slightly smaller sheep than the white Texel, but often show greater muscle with excellent confirmation.

Speaking about the flock Vicky Collison said: “We purchased our first purebred Blue Texels in 2006 and, from then, our purebred flock has grown steadily.

“In 2014, we bought our first pedigree-registered Blue Texels and Cooraclevin Blues became the first pedigree-registered Blue Texel flock in the Republic of Ireland.

Bloodlines

“All our ewes are from top imported bloodlines from Europe and the UK. We run them alongside our commercial flock of over 550 ewes and small flock of pedigree Zwarbtles.

“We retain all our Blue-cross ewe lambs within the commercial flock, as these make very good breeding ewes. We intend to continuously expand our pedigree flock, as we foresee a good demand for this breed.”

The new additions to this year’s National Ploughing Championships can be found at the National Sheep Breeders Association tunnel.