Texel

The Texel comes from the island of Texel off the north coast of the Netherlands, and it was bred for one thing above all: muscle.

A Texel carcass has an exceptionally high ratio of lean meat to bone and fat, and a Texel ram used as a terminal sire raises the muscling of the lamb crop noticeably in a single generation. That is why they spread through Europe and reached the United States in 1985.

They are white faced with no wool on the head or legs, and the fleece is a useful medium wool rather than an afterthought.

The trade is at birth. Texel lambs are wide through the shoulders, which raises lambing difficulty, and the breed is slower growing early on than a Suffolk cross. They also mature later, so they finish at an older age.