Who are we?
We are Willem and Sabine de Jong. We live in rural Beesd with our two young children, Willem and Tim. And we have approximately 40 breeding ewes of the British Texel breed.
History
I, Willem, was born and raised on a farm together with my younger brother, and I have never known anything other than there being sheep. Until 2023, I kept 300 to 350 ewes with my parents, and we bred lambs largely for meat. For the last 10 years, we bought our breeding rams from Carla Jansen. These were also British Texels, and that is when the love for this beautiful breed began. Strong, robust, and fast-growing animals—that appealed to us enormously! Unfortunately, the farm was sold in 2023 due to my father's health problems.
Together with Sabine, I decided to buy about ten British Texels and become members of the studbook, and we registered with the NTS and the NSFO. The name of the farm was adopted, and that is how "de Grutto" came into existence.
The farming blood still flows through our veins, and Sabine also enjoys the sheep a lot, so it was decided to purchase more sheep, and we have grown to around 40 breeding ewes, including a number of ewes and breeding rams we imported ourselves.
Our breeding goal
We try to breed a heavy, robust, long sheep with good maternal qualities and good conformation: a strong back with a beautiful head.
In addition, the growth index is very important to us. All lambs are weighed immediately after birth and again after 8 weeks; this is how the daily growth is calculated. We aim for an average growth of around 400 grams per day. After 20 weeks, the lambs are weighed one more time, and muscle thickness is also measured. All this data is processed by the NSFO, and the breeding value is calculated accordingly.
The worm index is also something we consider important and pay attention to. In the period after lambing, saliva samples are taken from all ewes lambing for the first time; these are also sent to the NSFO so that a breeding value calculation can be obtained. The aim of this is to breed sheep with higher resistance to worm infestations so that we need to deworm our animals less frequently.
In addition, we believe the ewe's leg conformation must be correct, as we prefer to see a ewe weighing around 100 kg that will last for several years. Fertility is a very important factor that we certainly do not forget; we like to see a ewe that can raise two lambs.
Because we started with ewes purchased entirely from various breeders, we have a very extensive bloodline at our disposal.
Health status
As mentioned earlier, the worm index is important to us. We strive not to deworm and to keep medication use as low as possible. We take fecal samples ourselves and also regularly check them for worms.
Half of the surface area of our grassland consists of a special herb mixture of leguminous and nitrogen-fixing plants; this contributes to healthier animals and good biodiversity.
Our animals are certified free of maedi-visna, and we aim to be officially scrapie-free by the end of 2026 as well. The rams we use are already free of scrapie.
