THE EARLY YEARS OF TEXELS IN CANADA
Authors Gordon and Reta Young- Thorndale, Ontario, Canada.
- 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.
