Our Texels Produce!
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Cooke Creek Sheep Co. is family-owned farm located in Central Washington State. We raise Registered Purebred Texel sheep and Coopworth sheep utilizing the Texel as terminal sire on Coopworth ewes for a grass-fed, extremely muscled, lean lamb.
WE DIRECT MARKET ALL OF OUR FARM PRODUCTS AND SELL MARKET LAMBS, FAIR LAMBS, TEXEL BREEDING STOCK AND ALL SORTS OF WOOL PRODUCTS
"Starter Flocks" For Sale - Pure Texel or Texel/Coop Cross
We have several groups of 4-5 ewes with an unrelated ram for sale as a package deal starting at $1200.
CCS 0752 and her 2008 ewe lamb CCS 0848 - a pretty pair of ewes.
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Our Philosophy and Goals
We wanted to raise a hardy, quick-finishing meat lamb on a grass-fed system (keep in mind, we get 6" of precipitation a year and only have irrigation from April - July) with an emphasis on quality of cuts, especially the most sought after-- the leg and loin. This brought us to the Texel terminal sire. We were so pleased with the very first lamb crop out of our first Texel ram, that we began a purebred breeding program adding higher quality Texels to our flock each year using loineye measurements, leg scores, rate of gain figures with an emphasis on retaining prolific ewes that milk heavily to raise their twins and triplets on our pasture-based management system. These are practical sheep and we require our ewe lambs to lamb in their first year and cull out any adult ewes that don't twin or better. Our Texels don't require concentrated feeds to maintain their muscling. They are very docile, easy to handle and very hardy. We have now closed our ewe flock to maintain our health standards. All of our ewes are tested for OPP and are negative.
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Feed Program
We are a self-sustaining sheep operation. We grow our own hay and pasture raise all of our lambs to market weights without outside feed sources. We utilize mineral supplementation from outside sources, but that is about it. We cut one cutting of hay a year and rotate the ewes and lambs on designated pastures and then finish them on the hay field instead of getting a second cutting before the winter snow. Ewes are managed the same with the exception of the addition of alfalfa hay purchased from a local farm for the birthing/early lactating period. We only feed grain for a flushing period of 3 weeks to the ewes and rams before breeding time. Our lambs are hardy, good foragers and very inexpensive to feed! To us, this is practical sheep management and we ourselves prefer grass-fed lamb to eat.
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It's no wonder Texels are making a big splash in the sheep industry all around the world when simply adding a Texel or Texel-cross ram into an existing ewe flock can make such a difference in the "bottom line" - more money in the producer's pocket by getting lambs to market quicker with less feed and higher yielding carcasses. Commercial and small flock producers here in the US are seeing these same results. Our goal is to provide the type of Texel to producers that will make raising sheep a profitable endeavor.
We offer a few select rams and ewes for sale each year along with some fine crosses.
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FALL 2006 FLOCK ADDITIONS, IMPORTED BLOODLINES
These 2 ewes are embryo transfer ewes with UK and Dutch bloodlines from Portland Prairie Texels in Minnesota. We are very excited to have them join our breeding program! See more pictures on our breeding stock page.
Call us if you'd like to consider adding a Texel sire into your breeding program.
Keeping involved in sheep industry issues is an important part of our management.
We are members of:
 Kittitas County Sheep Producers.
 A consistent health program is in place on our farm. We routinely test for OPP, genotype all of our breeding sheep for scrapie resistance and are enrolled in the Scrapie Flock Certification Program, Flock WA2336 (year 4). Worming is done as needed and preventative immunizations are done on a scheduled basis. We take care of health issues are they arise; care is given, and decisions to maintain good flock health are made.
Hess 0359 with her 2005 triplets
Click logo to email us:
Cooke Creek Sheep Company
Larry and Jami Beintema
831 Cooke Canyon Road * Ellensburg, WA 98926
Phone: (509) 968-9320
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Check out our UPDATED wool products catalog!
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