Texel sheep are named after the island of Texel, the largest of the Wadden Islands, just off the coast of the Netherlands. The exact origin of the breed is unknown although it is thought to be a cross of the original Texel sheep with Lincoln and Leicester Longwool sheep in the mid-1800's with the goal of achieving a high quality meat breed. It was slowly bred into a meat breed of outstanding carcass quality. It is now one of the most common meat breeds in the Netherlands, making up 70% of the national flock.
In 1951, Texel sheep breeder and exporter Herman J Keijser of Den Burg, North Holland, exported 100 Texel ewes and rams to Peru on the cargo sheep Baarn, where their stocks were used for both meat and wool. The Texel is distributed in approximately 35 countries across Europe, the Americas, and Oceania, with estimated populations of over 5,000 in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom.
Stock imported from France by the Animal Breeding Research Organisation in Scotland in 1970 was cross-bred with a variety of British breeds, including the Border Leicester, Hampshire Down, Leicester Longwool, Lincoln Longwool and Southdown, leading to the development of the British Texel; a herd book was started in 1972. It is larger and heavier than the original Dutch stock, with weights up to 120kg for rams and 85kg for ewes. It is the most numerous British breed, with a population in the early 21st century of around 350,000 ewes. Some of the sheep are valuable: a ram lamb was sold in Lanark, Scotland, in 2009 for £231,000, and in 2020, another was auctioned for almost £368,000.
It is a heavy and muscular sheep that produces a lean meat carcass. Rams weigh around 95kg and stand 70cm at the withers, and ewes weigh around 75kg and stand 68cm at the withers. Both sexes are polled, and their faces and legs are free of wool and are white. Because Texels are primarily a meat breed, the wool is definitely considered a secondary crop. As with all wool clips destined for industrial processing, any black fibres are unacceptable.
Texels produce a nice matte white fleece that can be used for everyday textiles such as socks, sweaters and blankets at the fine end of the range or rugs as its coarser end. Shorter stapled fleeces can be carded and longer ones can be combed, although the lofty quality means that even worsted processed and spun yarns will not be as sleek as other breeds worsted yarns would be but they will be warmer because the fibres trap more air. Blue Texels, which I have written about separately, are officially recognised as a separate breed in the Netherlands.
Average fleece weights are 3.2kg-5.4kg, with staples of 3-6 inches long (7.5cm-15cm). Fibre diameters are 28-33 microns. Australian Texels are coarser, in the range of 30-36 microns. There may be some kemp in the fleece, but the locks are springy and a little crisp feeling. Texels fleece are a matte white, although a coloured variety exists in the form of Blue Texel. The fleece will take dye clearly but without any lustre. Combing works well on getting any vegetation out of the fleece but shorter fleece can be carded. Any yarns spun will bulk up/bloom so you probably need to spin it finer than you would otherwise need. The bulkiness will need to be considered when working they yarn into hand crafted items. The wool is used mainly for knitting and sock wools.
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