THE EARLY YEARS OF TEXELS IN CANADA

Authors Gordon and Reta Young- Thorndale, Ontario, Canada.

My earliest recollection of Texels was in the late 1960's when I stumbled onto an article in a British faun journal. It was a report on feeding grass silage and the Texels stood out from the other breeds that were involved. Over the next few years of doing literature searches I became convinced that Texels deserved a place in the Canadian sheep industry. In the early 1970's I approached Agriculture Canada about the possibilities of importing live Texels From Europe. They didn't laugh but they made it very clear that it could never happen.
Sometime in the early 1970's I met Dr. David Armstrong who had recently returned to Canada from Harvard University. David grew up in Eastern Ontario on a dairy farm and had excelled in his academic education and joined Harvard University research organization at a very young age. Over a period of 13 years he went on to a very distinguished career on the world stage. His return to Canada was driven by an offer of a senior position at Western University to establish a world class medical research program U.W.O. did not have a large animal research facilities and I arranged for David to use our farm and sheep flock for experimentation. This project expanded during the 70's and David joined the faculty at the University of Adelaide in Australia on a half time basis. This allowed him to carry on research in natural breeding seasons in both the northern and southern hemispheres. We also had daily contact with developments in sheep breeding from Australia. David applied for and received a huge research grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada and this meant his staff would grow and he would need expanded research facilities. I became an official research station and we built surgery and laboratory facilities along with new animal care facilities. I left my employment at Fanshawe College and became a member of the U.W.O. research team.
All the experimentation in reproduction physiology, although it was performed on sheep, goats and cattle was aimed at human applications. In order to keep this account as brief as possible I will record the happenings in point form.
1975 1980

• Use of laparoscope in inseminating ewes and does.
• Trials of freezing semen and embryos.
• Trials on flushing embryos using differing hormone applications.
• Visited England and had opportunity to see Texels and discuss performance. Discussed Texels with prominent Suffolk breeder . He predicted Texel would disappear from Britain within 10 years.

• Constructed new building -- housing surgery, laboratory and animal care.
• Dr. Armstrong was publishing many papers on his work both in Canada and Australia.

1980- 1985

• Involvement with many universities and research groups from Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A.. Canada, Germany, France. Denmark and others. Had regular visitations and sharing of information. Had considerable attention from Canadian national media and this became a problem in the future o1' the operation. Received considerable information from the Danes on Texels and their regulations on exporting.
• Dr. Armstrong visited Denmark - met with senior faculty at Royal Danish Veterinary University. Danish Agriculture officers and the Danish Sheep Association - the decision there was to proceed with importation of embryos.
• We had several discussions with Health of Animals Ottawa, very lukewarm at first they had no policy on ovine embryos and invited us to write a protocol covering importation. They accepted our proposal.
• Ottawa stalled continually - said they couldn't get approval from U.S.D.A. eventually we discussed our application with U.S,D.A, and they had no problem - still no action from Ottawa.

1986 - 1990

• Finally after repeated follow ups we received an O.K. with some restrictions that may or may not be applied.
• Formed a company Nissouri Livestock Genetic Research Ltd.
• Busy selling shares along with keeping up with regular activity - planning for selection of sheep and flushing.
• Negotiations on leasing, ewes and rams - setting up a quarantine station - finding a location for flushing and much more. Also trying to fit Danish arrangements into Dr. Armstrong's schedule.
• April 1987 I traveled to Denmark to select sheep, wrap up details with Danish Agriculture and Danish Sheep Association - hire a veterinary - set up quarantine - arrange facility for flushing - had some problems with farmers who had some difficulty with a New Zealand flushing program which went off the rails -- they were skeptical about us - some of these ewes and rams used by the Kiwis were imported live by U.S.A. in 1986. Also the N.Z. Lamb X. L. exportation of a plane load of Texels had happened in late 1986. This operation had also soured a number of farmers. Hired a former president of the sheep association along with the veterinary to look after trucking and startup of quarantine station.
• Aug. 1st 1987 -- sheep entered the quarantine station. Ottawa advised us that they would not accept Danish blood tests but all testing would be done in Scotland. Also the range of tests had to cover nearly every possible sheep disease - the cost $240 per head. 22 ewes and 6 rams entered the station - the Danes also continued their blood testing at no cost to us. From the beginning of the schedule we were concerned about the fertility of the rams for mid Sept. We were assured by everyone including our contacts at the Vet. University that Texel rams would be fertile by early Au(, . in Denmark because of their northern latitude.
• Aug. 27 - 1987 1 arrived in Denmark to begin programming the ewes I noted immediately the sheep were fat - the vet assured me all the animals were O. K. - Sponges were removed at 14 days - heat was observed right on schedule -- all ewes were hand mated and all rams performed perfectly. Then disaster struck only one ram was fertile. We had a wonderful response from the ewes -- a total of 280 ovulations but only 14 embryos from 2 yearlings that were mated to a ram lamb.

What to do 

• We were in financial trouble as well as being very embarrassed
• Nissouri’s board met and wanted to approach Ottawa to try for a permit to import live sheep
• We had a large investment in the Texels that were in quarantine.  After about 3 weeks of frantic negotiations we had a clearance to import only sheep that were in quarantine
• Not everyone would sell
• Price negotiations had to be with Association not the owners.  By early October we had purchased 18 head.  Only 2 rams, Ottawa agreed to allow us to use the Sept. blood test provided the sheep would arrive at Mirabel by Nov. 15.   This didn’t happen because Ottawa couldn’t complete their paper work.
• We hired Samson Transportation to act as our agent and to arrange all shipping procedures.  Samson is a European wide livestock exporter.  They served us well.  Samson sourced a charter flight, Martinair, out of Copenhagen to Chicago with fuel stop at Mirabel.  Sounded too good to be true.
• Scheduled for Dec. 28.  We had to blood test the 18 head
• On Dec. 20 Ottawa advised they couldn’t get their paper work completed.  Samson saved us having to pay for the flight.
• Jan. 88 we had a very angry meeting with Ottawa, we reached agreement that the sheep would fly on Feb. 13. Another blood test was demanded and the sheep had to be flown from Jutland to Amsterdam
• The crate must be sealed in Denmark and was not to touch any soil until Mirabel
• They were to remain at Mirabel for 45 days and then they would be isolated at Thorndale for 60 days.  Blood testing would be done in and out at Mirabel and possibly at the end of the 60 days
• Mid March we were informed that most of the sheep were testing positive for several diseases.  Another test in March supposedly showed only nine ewes were positive.  We were refused any details on the tests and were told we could not see the test records.  Another test in early April different animals were showing positive for only Chlamydia.  8 ewes and 1 ram.  There would not be further tests and 9 animals were going to be destroyed

• We contacted Danish Agriculture immediately when we got the first news.  They were emphatic that there was no disease issue but we were caught in a political mess.  They advised us to get help from anyone who had political clout in Ottawa.  The British Lab wondered what kind of game Ottawa was playing; they urged us to take court action.  In a 3 week period we pleaded with many government officials, but no help was offered.  Ralph Ferguson, a former federal Minster of Agriculture tried many approaches to help us but was stone walled everywhere.  He advised us that there was no way to reverse the decision including court action.  An Ottawa law firm advised us that we had a “compelling case” but they said we couldn’t expect to get any financial award and it would cost us at $75,000 to fight the case because we had several European witnesses.  I did get John Wise the then Minister of Agriculture to write us a letter stating what happened and to identify by number each animal involved.  Our last offer to Ottawa was to allow a senior faculty member from St. Hyacinthe Vet University to draw blood on all 18 animals and he was to ship this blood to Allebix Corp.  in Toronto.  They would perform blot tests on the blood and would be able to give accurate results.  We also stated we would not use the results in any manner to incriminate or embarrass Ottawa.  We stated we would have a legal document drawn up to protect them.  This process was to be done at our expense.  This caused an explosion and I was informed I had 10 days to get the 9 sheep out of Mirabel and furthermore I was banned for life from ever receiving a permit to import livestock.  When we took the sheep from Mirabel we noted there was no evidence of blood being drawn from them and all 18 sheep were in one large pen, the same pen from their arrival.  We were not only financially bankrupt at this time but we had very little interest in continuing the project.  We did flush the ewes once or twice.  We sold offspring, semen and the ewes we had assembled for recipients.  From the 14 embryos we had 8 lambs and one still birth.  I felt responsible in great part for the failure; we knew there was risk with breeding in Sept. 

We should have put a few commercial ewes into quarantine for short cycling so the rams could start working in Aug.  Also I should have checked the semen at the time of breeding.  We could have easily had at least 150 lambs and not the nonsense we encountered.

          In the summer of 1989 Dr. Dave Armstrong attended a garden party for introduction of a new product line for a pharmaceutical company, he was told by a senior employee of O.M.A.F.R.A. that we were victims of a retaliation exercise against Danish Agriculture.  Apparently they had turned back some dairy cattle for health reasons prior to 1988.  We were asked by Danish Agriculture to verify the identification numbers of the sheep as they were submitting a complaint to the European Market Agriculture Organization. 
          In 1991 we shipped all the mature animals to Vermont; this was to satisfy Dr. Sheldon’s shares in Nissouri Livestock.  Some months later he was refused registration of the sheep by U.S.D.A. because Ottawa stated the sheep were illegally imported to Canada.  The sheep were registered by Canadian Livestock Registration without protest and 3 rams had previously been exported to the U.S. without any protest.  The letter we received from the Agriculture Minster quickly satisfied U.S.D.A.  We were not able to find the source of the false information or why it was forwarded to U.S.D.A.
          By 1992 all the remaining sheep had been sold.  All financial obligations had been paid and all shareholders had been satisfied.  We dissolved Nissouri Livestock and surrendered our charter.  In spite of all the difficulties I am convinced that Texel sheep are truly an outstanding breed.  One only needs to look at Britain to see their great success in becoming the leading meat breed.