Jaap Eelman
Our farm lies near the village of Oosterend. The farm is close to the Wadden Sea. Our family consists of Jaap (45), Astrid (41) and two sons: Gerco (13) and Robin Sebastiaan (10) Eelman. It is a mixed farm. We keep cows and Texel breeding sheep. The surface area of our farm is 96 acres, 5 of which we use to grow corn. We rent out about 10 acres for seed potatoes. |
The company Eelman |
We own 35 dairy cows and 33 head of young cattle. This year, the lambing will start on March 9, 2001. There are 96 pregnant sheep. We have not used last year's ewe lambs, we only let two year old sheep lamb at our farm. The number of ewe lambs we now keep is 60. We are the third generation breeding Texel sheep. In 1917 Jacob Eelman started with Texel pedigree sheep. The picture below shows the champion ram of 1926 and a newspaper article about J. Eelman and his wife E. Eelman-Bruin.
 Ram 1926 |
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Jacob was succeeded by his son Gerrit Eelman, who carried on the farm on the same principles. Our photo album shows several champion rams. A lot has changed where appearance is concerned. Nowadays, the head of the ram is much bigger and there are many more notable differences.
 Reserve champion 1977 with Gerrit Eelman |
 Champion and reserve champion 1990 with Jaap and Astrid Eelman. Rams 4252/0217 and 4030/0963 |
In 1980 I took over the farm. My father, Gerrit Eelman, was 63 years old by then. He still visits our farm every day and helps tend the sheep. He is a true sheep farmer. There were about 150 breeding ewes when I took over the farm. When we expanded to cows, we decided to reduce their number to less than 100.
On October 16, 2000, we split up our flock into six groups. We used the following rams: Ram 4380-2923, born a twin on March 30, 1999. This is the second time we are using this ram. He was champion of the older rams at the 2001 winter show on Texel. There he weighed 77 kg and he stood 70 cm at the withers.
He was registered in October 2000 with the following points:
| Head | 89 |
| Development | 86 |
| Muscle | 87 |
| Overall Balance | 85 |
| Type | 86 |
| Legs | 83 |
| Wool | 90 |
| AGeneral Appearance | AB86 |
Since he won the championship this year, we will have him registered anew this summer. Last year this ram did very well too, considering the number of lambs and the quality of these lambs. 30 sheep gave birth to 54 lambs then, an average of 1.8. This year, 20 sheep are pregnant by this ram.
 Champion ram 2001 4380-29233 |
 Reserve champion 2001 5673-01033 |
Ram 5673-0103, born a twin, February 2, 2000. This ram has been with ten of our sheep, and nine of them are in lamb. We were able to lease him. He was among the top ten ram lambs at the Texel breeder's fair of September 2000. At the Texel winter show in January 2001, this ram was named reserve champion of the ram lambs. He was awarded 89 points for muscle and 88 for general appearance.
Ram 3964-3076, born a twin, March 22 2000. We used this ram because of his very productive grandmother, 3964-1980, who gave birth to 11 lambs in 4 litters. Unfortunately, this sheep died from lying on its back. The mother of 3076, 3964-2801, will be lambing for the second time this year..
3964-3076 was registered with the following points:
| Head | 86 |
| Development | 86 |
| Muscle | 87 |
| Overall Balance | 86 |
| Type | 86 |
| Legs | 85 |
| Wool | 87 |
| General Appearance | AB86 |
At the 2001 winter show on Texel, this ram weighed 53 kg and stood 68 cm at the withers.
Ram 3964-2942, born a twin on April 1, 1999. We are using this ram for the second time. Last year 25 sheep gave birth to 47 of his lambs, an average of 1.88. This ram is very fertile. This year he got 26 sheep with lamb in one go.
In October 2000 he stood 69 cm at the withers and was awarded the following points:
| Head | 87 |
| Development | 87 |
| Muscle | 87 |
| Overall Balance | 85 |
| Type | 86 |
| Legs | 86 |
| Wool | 88 |
| General Appearanve | AB86 |
Ram 5673-0108, born a twin February 27, 2000. This is a well-developed ram, suited to the new breeding aim.
He was registered with the following points:
| Head | 86 |
| Development | 89 |
| Muscle | 87 |
| Overall Balance | 87 |
| Type | 87 |
| Legs | 85 |
| Wool | 87 |
| General AppearanceM | AB87 |
At the 2001 winter show on Texel, this ram weighed 57 kg and stood 68 cm at the withers. This year, 10 sheep will give birth to his offspring. The ram is very fertile, because these ten sheep were all in lamb after one try.
Ram 4031-2184, born a twin February 25, 2000. This ram has been with eight of our sheep. We leased him. He was among the best ten at the Texel breeder's fair of September 2000, so we are very eager to find out what his offspring will be like. He was awarded 91 points for muscle and 88 for general appearance. At the winter show in January 2001, he weighed 61 kg and stood 65 cm at the withers.
We aim to breed a healthy and well-developed sheep. The Texel herdbook of North Holland adjusted their aim two years ago, when the sheep were becoming too small. We are very happy the sheep now have to be bigger. A well-developed sheep is better at raising two lambs without any problems.
We take part in the scrapie monitoring scheme. All pedigree ram lambs are tested for scrapie and every year we send in a head to be examined. We are scrapie monitored. Since 1980, we have Maedi-Visna accredited, so we have had this status for a long time. Every two years, our sheep are tested for Maedi-Visna. We have been keeping an eye on the production for years now. We are satisfied with an average of 1.8 or higher per sheep..
Our hopes for 2001 are high. We are eager to find out what lambs we can expect. It always remains to be seen whether the crossings are successful.
Like every year, we have had students on work placement. This is the twelfth year we have had trainees from Barneveld. We enjoy teaching them how to deliver sheep and also how they should deal with sheep. It gives us a great deal of satisfaction if the trainees go home able to independently deliver and care for sheep..
In June/July we will decide which of the 60 one year old ewes we want to keep. We sell the rest for breeding purposes. The number of sheep up for sale depends on the number of rejects.
Should you wish to visit, we would be glad to have you. Our address is Lageveld 4, 1794 GE Oosterend (Texel). Telephone: (+31) 222 318814. Our flock number is 363163 and our breeder's number is 3964. .
You van also reach us by e-mail:astrideelman@hetnet.nl