Meat · Breed · Short entry
Texel
A heavily muscled, lean meat sheep from the island of Texel off the Dutch North Sea coast. Crossing with Lincoln, Leicester and Wensleydale sheep in the late nineteenth century turned a small native sheep into a large, prolific one. It reached France from 1933 and Britain in the 1970s, where it is now the leading choice of terminal sire.
From a Dutch island to Europe's meat flocks
The British Texel Sheep Society says the breed originates on the island of Texel. Crossed with Lincoln, Leicester and Wensleydale sheep in the late nineteenth century, the small native sheep became a large, prolific one, popular for its well-fleshed but lean carcass. Races de France says ewes were first imported into France from Texel in 1933 and a French flock book was opened in 1935. The breed spread through the grassland regions of northern, eastern and central France and Normandy.
In Britain the first imports came from France in the early 1970s, followed by direct imports from the Netherlands at the end of that decade. The British society was formed in 1974. Breeders select against scrapie susceptibility and microphthalmia carriers and use performance indices, and Texel rams are now the preferred terminal sire of British producers.
How it connects
Breed
- similar Suffolk
