We are delighted to work with our local primary school each year, showcasing the best of British Farming and showing the children where and how their food is produced.

Each year at lambing time the children have the opportunity to visit and see the lambs. It is wonderful seeing the interaction, engagement and the bonds created as they learn what really happens for themselves. We talk about the yearly cycle, animal welfare and how the lambs live and end their lives, plus they get to sit in a tractor.

Following their lambing visit they return to school and in the following weeks plant vegetables, then in July before the end of term they have their farm to fork lunch. This features Kimbolton lamb and their own vegetables, with everything having grown within view of the school.

Its a very special occasion with a delicious lunch and is something more schools should be doing!

Watching the lambs natural growth rates is something we never get tired of seeing. Growing from ~5kg at birth to 40kg has dramatically sped up due to genetic gain.

Traditionally in the 1990’s this would have taken around 21 weeks, now it takes 12-14 weeks! Not only is this great for cashflow, it is also good for the environment as it reduces the flocks emission’s intensity.

In addition to growth we also wish to have good carcass attributes and therefore we use technologies such as ultrasound scanning to measure backfat and muscle depth at around 40kg of weight.

Pictured below is a lamb being ultrasound scanned and also a view of the scan image.

Once collected, all phenotypic data is submitted to the British Texel Sheep Society and included in their National Texel Evaluation service.

The results from this allow animals to be compared on a like for like basis across the breed allowing genetically superior animals to be identified and ranked.

Lambing for 2026 has now finished!

Overall we have been delighted with how things went. As always there were some surprises but we were delighted with a lambing mortality rate of under 3%, our lowest ever.

Now the focus switches to some rest and recovery for the head shepherd as we switch into “Operation stay alive” for the ewes and lambs!

More to follow!

Its been some very long days and nights but the lambs are happy, healthy and full of life.

Its very enjoyable taking a few moments to enjoy them as they are all growing up so fast. Here are some of our favourite pictures so far!

Lambing has continued at a pace, however the impact of the dry weather during the first tupping cycle in 2025 has meant that the usual 75% of ewes holding was reduced to around 50%.

Consequently this means more will be lambing in the second cycle than we would “normally” expect. This was caused by rain finally falling during the first cycle that made the grass green up, which was very welcomed. However it also means we have five time the number of triplets in the second cycle than the first!

Good mothering ability is critical for us and poor maternal ability is recorded and ewes are always culled from the flock.

We want ewes who lamb naturally, without intervention and who love their lambs! They also need to have plenty of milk and be attentive to their lambs when they are born, as this is critical to the health of the lambs and how they grow on.

Across the UK we have seen far greater use of Embryo Transfer work in Texel’s. This process sub contracts the carrying, birth and care of a lamb to another breed of ewe. If this trend continues over multiple female generations where donor ewes don’t lamb naturally, the selection for maternal traits is lost. This is something we feel is a retrograde step for the breed and is something that buyers should consider when making purchasing decisions.

Embryo transfer can be a great tool if you are trying to replicate a proven ewe who has excellent maternal traits but beware of anyone who solely uses it to produce their sale sheep as they will likely have lost control of the maternal ability of their females.

Fortunately iTexel https://www.itexel.uk/ allows you to see the birth type (embryo or natural) of all progeny and can help you be more informed about what you are buying, hopefully avoiding nasty surprises in the future.

You can be reassured that any Kimbolton sheep offered for sale will not have come from generations and generations of embryo bred sheep and that maternal ability is one of the strict selection criteria applied.

The first of the lambs have arrived a day early, of course we were ready for them!

The gestation length difference between rams is something that fascinates us as it is an important factor that drives lamb survival.

If a ram produces heavier lambs then they can still be born easier if they are born either early or full term. However, if they are born later then they are likely to need more assistance due to the phenomenal growth in the latter stages of pregnancy.

As shepherds we prefer an easy life with minimal intervention as it is easier on both ewe and lamb, therefore we select for easy lambing traits and take gestation length into account when producing our mating plan.

The countdown to lambing is always an exciting time as the success or failure of your breeding decisions become real. Will that “perfect” combination that you had in your head work or be a disaster?

The sheds have been disinfected and filled with sheep and clean straw and we are locked and loaded with night checks and plenty of camera watching underway with the first lambs expected on 1st March!

Below is the maternity barn and the camera view!

After a hectic autumn sale season it was pleasing for the flock to get their animals sold to some great homes representing both existing and new customers.

This year in particular it seemed that the Kimbolton Flocks commercially focused breeding objectives were what people were looking for.

Many people chose to buy direct from farm as this is the best way to see everything for sale, including viewing their families and understanding the system they are produced in. Additonally the flock did enter both National and Club sales across the country to cater for those who were unable to visit the farm or were unaware of us.

Whilst we have sold out of sheep for 2025, we can still help with semen and are happy to discuss your requirements for 2026 as orders are already being taken.

Finally Paul would like to sincerely thank everyone who has shown interest in the flock this year and pass on his best wishes for tupping and lambing.

I am sure you will have read plenty about climate change and the impact livestock have. What ever your views it is important that we all play a role in optimising what we produce so that we can play our part.

To help support this a project funded by AFN Network + (more details below) called “Breeding better beef and sheep: co-designed breeding strategies to achieve net zero” is being undertaken and the Kimbolton Flock was selected as one of the twenty case study farms.

Led by the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester the projects aim is to help UK beef and sheep farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by making better breeding decisions. Currently, many farmers face unclear guidance on how to lower their emissions, slowing any progress considerably.

By reviewing global breeding methods and collecting data from 20 case study farms across the UK, the project aims to identify practical and affordable breeding strategies to cut emissions. To help validate and baseline these strategies each farm undertook a carbon footprint analysis to assess the impact of these breeding changes so any changes are evidence based.

The output from the project will be to develop solutions that practically support farmers in reaching net zero GHG emissions by 2050.

Other project collaborators include Russ Thomas (Hybu Cig Cymru/Meat Promotion Wales), Ed Smith (The Texel Sheep Society), Non Williams  (Mentera), Robert Gilchrist (Aberdeen Angus Society), Sarah Miller (Quality Meat Scotland), Shannon McLaughlin (Queen’s University Belfast), Sarah Morgan (Harper Adams University), Shailesh Shrestha (Scottish Rural College), Maud Helwegen (University of Bristol).

Commenting on the flocks involvement Paul said “in a changing world, it is vital that producers are aware of small changes that can easily be made that can have a big cumulative impact over time. I am pleased to be involved with this project to help support establishing best practice and I look forward to seeing the findings”

The AFN Network+ (UKRI Agri-food for Net Zero Network+) brings together more than 3,000 people from across UK agri-food to identify the key research gaps which need to be addressed if we are to reduce emissions in the sector and achieve the UK’s transition towards net zero by 2050.

The Network is a unique collaboration between academics, researchers, third sector organisations, policy makers, and agri-food industry professionals, including farmers and retailers.

Their findings will inform UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) research investments over the next decade.