Tullamore Park Texel stud sells its entire ewe flock

Tullamore Park Texel stud principals Pete and Liz Russell, Donald, announced their decision to retire the stud late last year, and in their final sale, offered 266 Texel and Texel/Australian White-cross ewes of varying drops.

In the AuctionsPlus sale, 170 of 211 Texel ewes sold to a top price of $2025 and averaged $453, while all 55 Texel/Australian White-cross ewes sold to a top of $370 and average of $325.

The stud sold 32 of the passed-in Texel ewes following the sale, with nine leftover that will most likely be sold later in the week.

Ms Russell said while it was an emotional event, seeing where her ewes were going "took some of the sadness out of it".

"There were 10 Texel studs bidding at the sale, from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, as well as some commercial breeders who were looking to establish their own Texel studs," she said.

"One positive from the sale was seeing that our genetic lines will carry on, and from losing one good stud in ours, we could have a handful more start up."

One well-known stud took home 24 Texel ewes, including the top-priced lot of the sale.

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That was Mertex Texel and White Suffolk stud, Antwerp, who was represented on the day by Tim and Basil Jorgensen.

Tim Jorgensen said it wasn't often an opportunity to secure genetics from a stud that had been renowned for so many years came up, so they wanted to take full advantage.

"Tullamore Park is a stud we've followed for many years," he said.

"We've also competed against them at shows for many years and they've always been good competition."

He said he particularly admired the Tullamore Park sheep for their overall appeal, conformation and structure.

"They're good, upstanding sheep," he said.

In his search for sheep to take home from the sale, he had a close look through all the family lines.

"They bought in some semen from New Zealand in 2016, and we tried to get some genetics that had some of that NZ blood in them," he said.

He said the top-priced ewe of the sale, Lot 10, was a "cracking ewe".

"She was one of their show ewes that they had at the Geelong Show last year, and we really admired her and thought she'd be a great addition to our stud," he said.

He said the plan was to join the 25 ewes to a ram lamb that had done quite well for them at the Geelong Show last year.

But they weren't the only buyers buying in bulk.

Jason Guy, Arden, NSW, took home 35, while Dennis Gleeson, Wakool, NSW, purchased 15.

Jennifer McKimmie, Westbury, Tas, purchased 10, while another Tasmanian local looking to start up their own stud also secured 10.

In SA, Andrew Hall, Manoora, bought 12, while young up and comer Troy Gulyan, Manoora, bought six.

Ms Russell said it wasn't an easy decision to move out of the stud industry, but they were looking forward to an eased workload.

"We will still continue with our cropping enterprise, and we may get some store lambs or cattle in, but that's still to be decided," she said.

"When we've got more feed on the ground, we'll try and stock up again but it will be a lot less work not having to worry about lambing."

She said as much as they loved running the stud and promoting the breed at shows, they were looking forward to slowing down a bit, and possibly doing some travelling.

"One of the best things that's come out of this is the friendships we've made within the [Australian Texel Stud Breeders Association] and the industry," she said.

"We're a small enough group of breeders that we get on really well and have made lifelong friendships."

She said they would still be involved in the Texel community however they could.

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