Texels tick most of the boxes at Knock for Bryden Nicolson

For Bryden Nicolson, who established the Knockem flock, at Duns, it all started when his wife, Johanna and their young daughter, Charlotte, were visiting relatives in Australia, in 2015.

On their return, he admitted that after after a lifetime besotted with Suffolk sheep, he had a ‘confession to make’ in that he’d bought a Texel flock!

However, two years later and after a lot of grief and ‘stick’ about the money spent on these new genetics, they sold a ram lamb for a phenomenal 42,000gns.

Putting the flock – which trades under Charlotte’s name and Bryden’s son, James – on the map that day was Knockem Abracadabra, which sold to Charlie Boden's Sportmans flock, Stockport. The sire of several lambs sold the following year, Abracadabra was also behind the dam of Sportsman’s reserve overall champion at the Textravaganza.

Abracadabra was an ET son of Knockem’s first ram lamb sold at Lanark, in 2016 – Knockem Yabba Dabba Doo, purchased by Roderick Runciman, Allanshaws, Galashiels, for 2200gns and kindly loaned back for Bryden’s AI day.

The dam that was flushed to produce that lamb originated from the Castlecairn flock and was one of 40 Bryden was lucky enough to be able to buy privately from Bruce Renwick’s well-known flock, at Kelso.

Since then, only a handful of other females have been purchased, with joint stock ram purchases including the 12,000gns Glenside Wildboy; 24,000gns Teiglum Braveheart; 36,000 Usk Vale Cheeky Charlie and the 50,000gns Sportsmans Dirty Harry.

However, it’s home-bred lambs bred from top female lines that have been the best performers for the young Knockem flock, which now numbers 45 breeding ewes.

This includes Knockem Dennis the Menace, a tup lamb sold last year at Carlisle for 3000gns with a share retained. He was the result of a Procters Abracadabra-sired in-lamb gimmer bought from the Procters flock at a J36 sale, which sold due to Sportsmans Batman.

some of ET sister to the flock’s ram lamb entered for breed sale at Lanark Ref:RH090821105 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Menace, a natural twin, is the sire of the first prize ewe lamb at the Royal Highland Showcase in June, which is also a full ET sister to the flock’s ram lamb entered for next week’s breed sale at Lanark, along with several others for the Solway and Tyne Club sale at Carlisle and the Kelso Ram sales.

So, with some notable sales already under his belt and several top show triumphs, including winning the tup lamb class at the Royal Highland on their first attempt, what exactly does Bryden look for in breeding stock?

“I like sheep to be correct, with a good top and a leg in each corner. Ideally, I’m looking to breed commercial Texel sheep for the modern market. Sheep have to be commercial first and foremost, so a good, well-shaped body, with gigot and frame, and correct on its legs. If you can get a bit of style and sharpness to go with it, that’s a bonus,” said Bryden.

However, he warned that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find such sheep as a big percentage of breeders are looking at the head first.

Bryden also believed the reduced shape and body of many Texels now is one of the main reasons why some commercial producers have switched to cross-bred, or hybrids as a terminal sire. However, by concentrating on breeding good, shapey lambs with gigots and tops, Bryden can sell, uniform evenly batched cross lambs from his commercial ewe flock early and straight off grass.

“The Texel became the No 1 terminal sire because of its carcase, get up and go attitude, good coat and ability to finish off grass, but if breeders continue to concentrate more on heads than bodies, the breed could end up going the same way as the Suffolk,” Bryden said.

“If Texel breeders are not careful, they’ll lose the commercial market all together because the head is the first thing that is cut off and put in the bin. Commercial men want sheep with good bodies, length, shape, topline and a backside and if the breed doesn’t have that, they’ll look elsewhere.”

As difficult as it is to change modern trends, Bryden believes relying on commercial sheep producers to judge the main breed sales at Lanark, Worcester, Ballymena and Carlisle, would help address the situation.

Good, well-shaped body, with gigot and frame, and correct on its legs is key at Knock Ref:RH090821101 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

He also highlighted the growing problem of mastitis within the breed, which he said needs to be addressed by the society, like it or not, when other breeds don’t have the same issues. “We are wide open to be toppled from the top,” he said.

“We run 1100 home-bred Cheviot cross Shetland ewes here, most of which are tupped using our home-bred Texel tups and the most mastitis we’ll ever see is in two or three ewes a year.”

Instead, he said that embryo transfer accentuates most problems within a breed and interestingly resulted in the Cheviot and Shetland sheep breeds banning all AI and ET work years ago. Thus it is not just coincidence that these two milky motherly breeds don’t have a problem.

In saying that, Bryden was the first to admit that to get anywhere breeding Texel tup lambs as it stands, breeders have to flush their best breeding females, which itself is an unpredictable procedure.

“It’s a complete lottery. You can have one ewe give you 21 eggs one year and the next she’ll give absolutely nothing, even though she’s been treated the exact same way as the previous year.

"Ideally, we’ll flush 15 ewes and hope to get 10-12 good eggs from each one ... but you’re playing with nature and you just never know,” Bryden said.

He is extremely particular in what he uses in his ET programmes, concentrating on females with good udders, top lines, shape and especially back ends.

In doing so, Knockem has been able to produce the top priced Texel ram lamb at the commercial ram sale at Longtown and the top flock average for the past two years in succession at £2200 and £2000, with their pens of seven ram lambs averaging in excess of £1000.

Knockem Explosion is the entry for the Lanark sale Ref:RH090821100 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

Such enthusiasm and reliance on the Texel breed both as a pedigree female and a terminal sire, is a far cry from Bryden’s old days on the island of Shetland, where he was always a Suffolk man at heart.

“I was Suffolk daft when I was younger and still was until a few years ago, but when the breed started going the wrong way and lost their commercial attributes I started looking elsewhere,” said Bryden, who all but dispersed the Knockem Suffolk flock last year.

“Texel-bred sheep always made good money in the market, so when I got the opportunity to buy some of the best pedigree Texel females in the country, I couldn’t refuse.”

That was in 2015, five years after he and Johanna decided to move south from the family’s 3500-acre hill farm on Shetland to buy the 460-acre permanent pasture unit at Knock, near Duns.

“I always had a notion of farming on the mainland but I knew I had to do it before I reached 40 – I only just managed at 39½ years, and had to spend 20 years as a fireman in the oil industry to be able to afford it,” he joked.

He’s still farming on Shetland and regularly travels back and forth to the islands to work with the 1500 Shetland and Cheviot cross Shetland ewes there that are tupped either to Cheviot, Texel or Suffolk rams or kept pure, for replacements, while Johanna is left in charge with all the sheep work back home in Duns.

It’s the Cheviot cross Shetland females that provide the backbone of the 1100 commercial ewe flock at Knock. Three-quarters of those are crossed to home-bred Texel rams with the remainder to Suffolks, with all the progeny finished off grass and sold live through St Boswells or Longtown.

Fantastic mothers, with an abundance of milk, good mouths and hardy, it’s these Cheviot cross Shetland females that will produce six or seven crops of lambs and regularly produce lambing percentages just shy of 200.

Fantastic mothers, with an abundance of milk, good mouths and hardy, it’s these Cheviot cross Shetland females that will produce five, six, even seven crops of lambs and regularly produce lambing percentages just shy of 200 Ref:RH090821112 Rob

Such is their mothering ability that, the team don’t even try to twin on a triplet lamb to a ewe with a single as they can easily rear three lambs. This year, they had 50 ewes running with triplets and without any extra concentrate feeding.

While the home-bred Suffolk and Texel cross recipient ewes and pedigree Texels lamb inside in February/March, the commercial ewes come into the shed to lamb in April. Fed according to what they are carrying from scanning time onwards, once lambed and bonded with their lambs, in an individual pen and a larger pen, they are then transported out to grass where they are left to fend for themselves.

The first of the lambs are finished off grass in August with the vast majority sold off the farm by November.

This year, the couple has also kept 140 Texel cross ewe lambs and 50 Suffolk cross ewe lambs, which in turn will be tupped with Texel lambs next year, as part of a trial to breed better shaped commercial lambs.

Such is their mothering ability that, the team don’t even try to twin on a triplet lamb to a ewe with a single as they can easily rear three lambs Ref:RH090821115 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

It’s all very much a learning process, but one which Bryden and Johanna are picking up on fast when they already have some of the best genetics to work with.

With the breed performing as well as it is at Knock, it won’t be long until they have a few pedigree gimmers for sale too, to go alongside the growing number of home-bred Cheviot cross Shetlands from Shetland which are also enjoying a ready demand.

The next few weeks will be taken up by a full calendar of Texel ram sales and of course, the usual rushing about with stock rams and breeding females to AI centres. Getting the right genetics for that Golden Egg is however what dreams are made of ...

FARM facts

Family business: Bryden and his son James who lives on the farm on Shetland, Johanna and their daughter Charlotte, based at The Knock, Duns.

Enterprises: 3500 acres on Shetland of inbye, improved and heather. Then a 24 hour road & boat journey to The Knock, Duns which consists of 460 acres of permanent grass, rising to 1000feet above sea level, all of which is owned.

Livestock: Shetland – 800 pure Shetland ewes of which 300 are crossed to a Borders-type North Country Cheviot to breed commercial breeding ewes for the Knock, with another 200 crossed to the Suffolk with the remainder kept pure to breed replacements. 500 Shetland/Cheviot ewes crossed with Texel & Suffolks plus small flocks of Blackface sheep and North Country Cheviots. Also 600 ewe hoggs overwintered for replacements or to sell.

The Knock – 1100 Cheviot cross Shetland ewes of which most are tupped with home-bred Texel rams, with the remainder to Suffolks. Progeny all finished off grass. Knockem pedigree Texel flock of 45 ewes and 300 recipients. 300 ewe hoggs overwintered for replacements.

Farm help – Excellent self-employed workers Peter Anderson in Shetland and Stafford Fry at The Knock with local contractors brought in for silage and ground work.

The Knock sits in 460acres which rises to 1000ft above sea level near duns Ref:RH090821116 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

ON THE spot

Best investment? Buying Garth Farm in Shetland in 1998

Biggest achievement? Selling Knockem Abracadabra for 42,000gns

Best advice? From my late father when he started out – never spoil your flock for the sake of a sixpence!

Where do you want to be in 2030? Hopefully the right way up!

What would you do differently looking back over your farming years? I never liked history at school, so never look back. Just steam on, you're only here once!!