BALLYHIVISTOCK TEXELS

Formed in 1991 between Samuel Simpson and his stepson Robert Calvin with approximately 20 females being purchased in the initial two years from a number of noted flocks including CLOGHER, SENERIL, BRAGUE, BLACKSTOWN, SPRINGHILL, FAIRMOUNT & SPORTMANS.

The first ram used was Mullentine Vim, a son of Mourne Tom who bred ewes with great scale. These ewes were mated with Hillhead Van Gogh, a pure dutch ram.  The purpose here was to increase the carcass quality, which the Ballyhivistock flock still holds as the number one priority.

Next was the purchase of Springhill Bellboy privately from John Foster. Bellboy was purchased to increase the scale of the ewes again while maintaining breed character as the dutch influence had left small shapely ewes. He was used in conjunction with Ballyhivistock Boss, a half dutch son of Van Gogh………to maintain the carcass quality. These rams were used for a number of years and formed the basis of the flock for the late 1990’s.

A number of other rams were tried with little success until the purchase of Tullylagan First Class at the Dungannon Premier in 1999, he was a very large ram which just suited the flock ewes at that time, unfortunately we lost him during tipping as a shearling the next year. Due to this loss late in the season a son of First Class, Ballyhivistock His Nibs, was kept and used on approximately a dozen ewes that were yet to be tipped. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the first son of His Nibs sold at the Ballymoney Club Sale for 550gns and shearlings the next year sold to 680gns and for the next few years bred consistent rams capable of topping local sales and creating a demand among commercial farmers for Ballyhivistock rams, many of whom remain repeat customers to this day. More importantly however was his influence on the female lines as his daughters and granddaughters have formed the majority of the flock for the last seven years. His Nibs himself grew into an impressive muscular ram, however like his father his fleece was not as tight as we would have liked.

In 2000 Montalto Grandslam was purchased at the Ballymoney Club Sale, he was a ram with great scale, bone, skin and a fantastic top-line. It was felt that what he was lacking in carcase could easily be remedied by the use of the dutch influence in the ewes and His Nibs daughters. This turned out to be the case with many rams bred over the next few years including shearling rams, Ballyhivistock Kracker being sold to the Mostragee Flock and Ballyhivistock Jackpot being sold to the Gruig Flock for pedigree breeding. For the next few years he and His Nibs were the mainstay of the flock.

The next notable purchase was Tullylagan Jackman at Dungannon Premier for 1400gns; he had a fantastic skin and great presence. He was not a large lamb when we purchased him, however he grew out extremely well and as a two shear he was Champion Aged ram at Ballymoney Show, this was his only time shown. He was used on all Grandslam and His Nibs daughters with most of the ewes in the flock from 2004 until 2006 being his progeny. This resulted in the breeding flock having a much greater consistency, which until this point had been lacking.

In 2006 the Holywell Flock stock sire Beechvale Kudos, a son of Etterick Jack-u-late, was privately purchased as a two shear from John and Sandra Middleton who were dispersing their flock. This purchase was made jointly with the Gruig Flock. He is a long but muscular tight skinned ram with great presence who was purchased to breed females, although his ram lambs have found a consistent commercial trade topping the texel sale at Kilrea last year at 480gns with most of the rest of his sons which were kept last year selling at home to repeat customers. He also bred all five of the third prize pen of ewe lambs in the Northern Ireland Flock Competition 2007 (Medium Flock Category).

In 2007 Tamnamoney Ned, a son of Douganhill McFly was purchased jointly with the Gruig & Bush Valley Flocks for 5,200gns he has an exceptional carcase, skin and breed character. His first year was exceptional for Ballyhivistock with sons selling to 1,500gns for Ballyhivistock Odyssey to Tosh’s Texels and breeding all five of the first prize-winning pen of ewe lambs in the Northern Ireland Flock Competition 2008 (Medium Flock Category).

The flock now numbers approximately 50 breeding ewes, of which only three are non-Ballyhivistock bred. With this number of ewes and Kudos getting past his best it was decided to make another purchase in 2008. At Dungannon Premier Sale we purchased Redford Ollie jointly with the Mostragee flock for 2,100gns, he was a very long ram with great alertness which was felt could be of benefit to the flock. Unfortunately he fell out with other rams in late November and came off worse, however his lambs look promising with a daughter being inter-breed Champion ewe lamb at Ballymoney Show 2009 - Ballyhivistock Precilla.

2009 has been our best year to date it started with our first trip to the Northern Ireland Premier Sale at Dungannon with 3 ram lambs Ballyhivistock Popstar a son of Redford Ollie, Ballyhivistock Prince Charming a Tamnamoney Ned son and full brother to last years top price lamb Ballyhivistock Odyssey and Ballyhivistock Poser another Tamnamoney Ned son which had stood third at Ballymoney show.

Popstar sold for 2,800gns to Karen & Lesley Beacom for use in their Castleknowe Flock, Prince Charming sold for 5,000gns to Ann Murphy and Fergal O’Shea for use in their pedigree flocks in the South of Ireland and Poser sold for 1,100gns to Alan Kerr for use in his Mostragee flock.

We then went to Kilrea texel sale where we achieved the top price ram lamb with Ballyhivistock Prestige selling for 820gns. Again we took three sheep to this sale with the others selling at 540gns and 360gns.

The next sale we attended was Lisahally Texel sale where we had the first prize ram with Ballyhivistock Predator which sold for 540gns with the other two rams on offer from ourselves at this sale selling at 300gns and 260gns.

At the end of 2009 we once again achieved the 3rd prize with our pen of 5 ewe lambs which consisted of 4 Redford Ollie daughters and 1 Tamnamoney Ned daughter in the Northern Ireland flock competition.

The 2010 crop were sired by the successful Tamanamoney Ned, our new 3,000gn purchase from Dungannon Tamnamoney Playboy, SRY09 004, who is a Ballynahone Oscar son (pictured left) and our own favourite lamb this year Ballyhivistock Performer, SCY09 009, (pictured right) who is a Redford Ollie son and out of our top breeding ewe (SCY06 079).  

The sales were very consistent in 2010, there were no exceptional individual prices, our top price at Dungannon Premier was 600gns with SCY10 113 and we topped Kilrea ram lambs with SCY10 030 at 800gns, the most pleasing thing was that both rams went to pedigree flocks and were off Ballyhivistock Performer, we also sold SCY10 001 to the Tullyhubert pedigree flock for 500gns at the Premier. Tamnamoney Ned was also sold privately to Steve Smith of Penparc Texels in Wales, we were also delighted to see Ned being the sire of the top price lamb at Lanark with Forkins Rock Solid selling at 65,000gns.  Overall the Texel sales we attended were Dungannon Premier where our lamb which sold to the Tullyhubert flock was 3rd in the novice class, Kilrea where we were 2nd in the ram lamb class and achieved the top price, Dungannon Main Sale, Armoy where we were again 2nd and had the 3rd highest price for a ram lamb of 500gns (twice), Lisahally where we had the 2nd prize ram lamb and Kilrea Multi-breed sale. Overall between these sales and home sales 24 Texel ram lambs sold to an average of £394.25.

We also sold 4 ewe lambs privately to 2 pedigree flocks. SCY10 030 was sold to Sean Duggan and was the second prize ram and top price at Kildee Texel sale.

The ram pictured below is SCY10 030 which was sold to Sean Duggan and was the second prize ram and top price at Kildee Texel sale:

2011 was a very consistent year for us. We sold two of our stock rams, one Texel, Tamnamoney Playboy to Liam Dillon and shortly after being sold he was Champion Texel at Bannow & Rathgan Show. We also sold two Texel ewe lambs to Rodney McLaughlin from Donegal, who also bought a ewe lamb from us in 2010, one Texel ewe lamb to Nigel Hamill and one to Graham McFarland.

Our first sale was the Northern Ireland Premier Texel Sale at Ballymena where we had a good sale with Lot number 347, Ballyhivistock Seismic, selling at 1,600gns he combines the blood lines of Beechvale Kudos with Ballyhivistock Performer and weighed 78Kg in the first week of July:

We also sold Ballyhivistock Solid for 650gns at the premier sale. The next sale was the Kilrea Texel Sale where we sold three more ram lambs to an average 410gns and a top of 500gns for another Performer son. Then at the Armoy Texel sale we had the second prize ram lamb with a pet lamb out of the dam of Ballyhivistock Prince Charming and sired by Tamnamoney Playboy, this lamb later sold for 650gns. Overall 19 Texel ram lambs sold for an average of £449.82 which is a pleasing average.

On a personal note during 2011 I was to be asked to judge the Growvite All-Ireland Texel show in Kilkenny in early June.  There was a record entry of 212 sheep in 9 classes so was by far the largest show of sheep in Ireland.  It was a great privilege to judge this show and an experience I shall always treasure.

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