Finalist for the “Most improved LambPlus Flock 2018”: James Kelly – Castle Kelly Texels (ILI)

The Castle Kelly Texel was first established by James in 2001 and he has been a member of LambPlus since it started in 2009. As a Pedigree breeder James knows he must produce excellent quality stock and he carries out performance recording as ‘Every year, you must produce the best lambs possible, and performance recording helps to do this’

During the course of the year, James has achieved a DQI of 71%. He has done this by recording lots of important data such as Lambing Difficulty, Birth Weights and Ewe Mature Weights. By recording the Mature weight of his ewes, the accuracy% of his flock will increase even more.

James has regularly submitted stock rams to the CPT Program over the years and this has helped James increase the rate of genetic gain in his flock and the commercial data that is collected from lambs sired by James’ ram’s feeds back into the evaluations of his pedigree lambs, thus resulting in more accurate evaluations.

Over the past 4 years, James’ flock has made huge genetic gain. Since 2015, James’ flock has increased by €1.19 on the Replacement Index and €0.76 on the Terminal Index, while the average accuracy% of his lambs in 2018 is 42.6%

Influential Sires:

Two of the most influential sires that James has used in terms of driving the genetic gain in his flock are Keltex Your the One and Muckish Awesome. Both rams were CPT Sires in the past and carry 5 stars on both the Replacement & Terminal Index. Keltex Your the One was also involved in the RamPlus Program in 2018, while Muckish Awesome claimed the red rosette in the Hogget Ram Class in Tullamore Show 2018.