Flor Ryan farms Lawn Texels near prosperous in Co. Kildare and has been nominated for the most improved LambPlus flock 2019. Lawn Texels are one of five flocks nominated for the most improved LambPlus flock 2019 and the other four flocks will be announced in the coming weeks. Lawn Texels were first established in 1990 and have been a member of LambPlus since its establishment in 2009. Flor produces animals in a grass based commercially focused system with the commercial farmer in mind. Lawn Texels have a strong commercial shearling ram trade with repeat customers and Flor feels that this is the best proof of rams performing with farmers return year after year.

Breeding animals are selected using their €uro-Star values as well as the commercial attributes of the breed such as muscling, length, tight skin and correctness. Flor feels the demand for star rated animals is growing year on year and that his selection process is vindicated with resulting progeny winning several show prizes and customers returning year after year to purchase both rams and ewes. Flor’s strong focus on using the €uro-Star values to select breeding animals can be seen with his 2019 lambs having an average replacement index of €0.45 and an average terminal index of €1.49, with an average index accuracy of 44%. A recent highlight for Lawn Texels was the sale of FRI16051 for €4,200 at the 2017 Irish Texel Premier Sale to a flock in the UK with her first son, Hexel Born to be Wild, selling for £8,000 and his first five sons selling for an average of 20,000gns. This success was a great boost for Lawn Texels showing that the animals are able to perform both at home and overseas.

Flor puts great effort into performance recording his flock with an extra focus in 2019 to record lamb weights, ewe weights and health traits such as lameness, mastitis and prolapse, this effort has resulted in the Lawn flock having an impressive DQI of 80%. Flor shares rams with many flocks to improve linkage and he also makes rams available to the CPT programme to improve index accuracies. Flor has utilised a small amount of embryo transfer in his flock but in general the vast majority of animals are produced through natural mating.

Flor uses many sires and new sires are trialed on a small number of ewes the first year with the highest performing rams getting a larger number of ewes to mate the following year. Rams that have had a big influence on the Lawn flock include Foundry Achilles and Hillcrest Yeovil who were both selected for excellent €uro-Star figures and are producing lambs to back it up. Mill Farm Usher has been used to breed replacements with many daughters being retained in the flock. Two young rams which have produced excellent lambs in 2019 are Derrylahan Big Balls who won the shearling ram lamb class at the Growvite Texel All-Ireland 2019 and Kilclammon Brantson who was 3rd in the Growvite Texel All-Ireland 2019.