PRODUCING the ideal tup that is well fleshed for the commercial breeders while keeping the breed characteristics in mind for the pedigree boys is very much the name of the game for the Jacksons and their Wolfclyde flock of Texels as they gear up for the Kelso Ram Sales.

With nearly one third of the sheep on offer at Kelso going under the hammer in the Texel rings, there will be plenty for buyers to choose from but it'll be hard to look past the shapely tups with plenty of style about them from Meikle and Liz Jackson's flock near Biggar.

"The flock was established back in 1989 with 17 females from the Ettrick, Cambwell and Rionford flocks, and over the years we've bought in further select females to strengthen the flock," explained Meikle.

"The farm had historically taken in Blackface ewe lambs at Lanark to sell as ewe hoggs the following June to make the most of the good grazing but, as it became less popular to turn over Blackie ewe lambs through the 1990s, we became committed to the Texel breed and built the flock up from there," added Meikle, pointing out that the 130-strong herd of Holstein Friesians is still very much the 'bread and butter' of the 270-acred farm which has been in the family since 1943.

"It very much started as a hobby and sideline to the main business and we had no experience whatsoever in lambing ewes, but that during first year our 17 ewes produced 32 lambs with no problems so we thought we were on to a winner!"

In those early days, the Jacksons, who were later joined by son Ross, who is about to begin an HND in agriculture, and 10-year-old daughter Rosie, sold the male offspring crop as ram lambs in various markets - Lanark, Dumfries, Carlisle and Builth Wells. But when the first round of Foot and Mouth hit in 2001, they were forced to keep lambs through the winter to sell as shearlings in 2002.

Those shearlings brought in a better return for the family and so it was decided to take lambs on through their first year to meet the shearling trade which, Meikle believes, was simplifying the job as he can now aim to take 20 shearlings to Kelso.

Having built the flock up to nearly 100 ewes at one point, numbers now sit around a much more manageable 65 but it wasn't until the introduction of Clinterty Mercedes in 2006 that the flock really upped its game.

Meikle expands: "We bought the Clinterty tup in partnership with Neil Harvey for 5000gns at the Lanark Premier sale when he stood second in the tup lamb class. He pretty much changed things for us as he had a very flashy head on him and produced a lot of breedy sheep.

"His first crop of lambs was maybe among the best we've produced and headed to Kelso as shearlings in 2008 to average £850 with a lot selling to pedigree breeders that year. He also sired our top priced tup to date at £3800."

Later on, the Jacksons purchased Blackadder Playboy for £4200 at Kelso and he left tremendous carcases on his stock while another purchase, the £2800 Toftcombs Ramekin, was a huge ram that passed on plenty size to his lambs. Both of which were bought along with the Kingside and Toftcombs flocks.

In fact, Ramekin is the sire of some of the 17 shapely shearlings destined for Kelso this year where they'll be sold as part of lot 26 in Ring 9, with some by Procters Spectacular and others by Midlock Tifter.

"We're really concentrating on good skins and big bums on big, growthy sheep as that's exactly what the buyers want at Kelso. But of course, we don't want to lose any of that breed character that the pedigree boys are looking for," Meikle pointed out.

"The shearlings are fed a small amount of concentrate from the beginning of the year through to the start of April to help them grow, as I think that's when they naturally grow anyway. They're also offered a wee bit ahead of sale time in order to give them a bit of shine but I don't like pushing them before they sell to a new home."

But the flock in general is commercially run and very easily managed with ewes only receiving molasses and as little concentrate as possible pre-lambing before their rations are upped to aid milk production once the lambs are on the ground.

And while the polytunnel erected several years ago collapsed during heavy snow fall, the Wolfclyde team later put up a shed in order to keep all the sheep under one roof instead of dotted around every available corner of the steadings.

While these additions may have made certain aspects of flock management easier for the Jacksons, it's still all hands on deck during busy spells of the year with contractors only bought in for harvesting silage while self-employed contractor David Burnett helps with some of the day-to-day tractor work.

Liz is kept busy too with a self-catering holiday cottage on site and there's no trip to Kelso for her as she does the milking while Meikle and Ross are there and at other sales.

"While I'm not hugely into the values or figures, I get all my joy and satisfaction out of getting sheep ready for sale and doing well with them. It's something that's beginning to pay off as we're now starting to get repeat customers.

"But it's the commercial trade and high standard of tups that draws us to the Kelso sale, though, as it's the best value for money sale for both buyers and sellers," Meikle concluded.