Breeders of Badger Face Texels, as well as commercial farmers using the rams as terminal sires, can be confident the breed is producing precisely what family butchers want for their customers.
That is the message from Northern Ireland family butchery firm L.A. Richardson and Son in Linaskea, Co. Fermanagh. The business, which has been in the same family for generations prides itself on retailing locally produced meats from what in most cases, are hand-picked livestock from farms in the area. In addition, the family has its own farm at Maguiresbridge which is about four miles from the butchery business, and partner Clive Richardson is of course the current chairman of the breed society, and breeding pedigree Badger Face as well as using his rams on other breeds.
“We are slaughtering three or four lambs each week and probably need to buy in 75 per cent or so of our annual requirement for lamb and it goes without saying I am looking for lambs sired by the Badger Face Texel, primarily because we know it is a tremendous terminal sire for the specification we need,” says Clive.
“That specification is a carcase of about 23kg to 25kg and at that weight, Badger Face sired lambs will be well finished with plenty of flesh on a beautifully balanced, firm carcase, but having the light covering of fat essential for top quality eating. I am not looking for extreme and lean muscling, but balance from the giggots through to loin and shoulder, and the lambs meeting this specification will be grading U3 all day long.”
Clive says when he goes to local farms to buy lambs he will pay above the going market rate which he says he is happy to do, because unlike the big wholesalers, he is able to hand pick the comparatively small numbers the butchery needs.
“The carcases cut down beautifully and the housewife these days doesn’t want waste. While the Badger Face sired lamb suits our business and is more profitable for us, it will also suit producers as they finish quickly and easily to the weight we are looking for. I would argue therefore, they are actually more economical to feed than something else, which at that weight for example, might still be regarded as a store and eventually finish too heavy for our needs,” he says.
So does it matter what type of ewe they are out of ? Clive’s answer to that is no.
“I have had Badger Face lambs out Mules, Suffolk crosses, Texel crosses and many others, and I can honestly say the Badger Face ram does put his stamp on the carcase and they would readily grade ‘U’ out of the Mules. I would expect the Badger Face sired lambs to certainly kill out well above the national average and in many cases at 60 per cent or so.”
