Sheep Ireland 2026 Elite €uroStar Multi-Breed Ram sale – Dates to Remember

The Sheep Ireland Elite €uroStar Multi-Breed Ram sale will take place on Saturday, August 22^nd 2026 in Kilkenny Mart, Co. Kilkenny.

Sheep Ireland Ram Sale – Dates to Remember:

It is advised that potential rams for the sale are DNA sampled and returned to the lab ASAP. This will allow sufficient time for rams to be re-sampled in the event of the sample failing the quality control checks at the lab or to rectify any parentage errors found.
Also, due to the possibility of a ram having a sire or dam changed and/or having a change in €uroStar values following genotyping, it is advised to genotype an additional ram(s) as substitutes well in advance of the sale.

Recommended last date for sending DNA samples to the lab	June 19^th
Deadline for sale pre-entries	Friday June 26^th
Deadline for final entries	Tuesday August 4^th
Provisional sales catalogue published	Friday August 7^th
Sale substitutes deadline	10am, Monday August 17^th
Final sale catalogue generated	Monday August 17^th
Sale ram intake	Friday August 21^st , 5-8pm
Sheep Ireland Sale	Saturday August 22^nd

Below is the entry criteria for the sale, as well as other important information you need to know for the sale

The 2026 LambPlus sale is kindly sponsored by:

Entry Criteria

Each year, the criteria set ensures that farmers are presented with the highest standard of rams. The success of the sale has been primarily driven by the high level of entry criteria. This year’s requirements include;

All rams must be:

€uroStar Index – 5 Stars for either the Replacement or Terminal index at the time of catalogue printing. These can be checked using your Sheep Ireland online €uroStar report for the most up-to-date genetic evaluation results.
Genotyped with Genomic Evaluation– genotyped through Sheep Ireland and in time for the last genomic evaluation at the time of catalogue printing.
Fully Parentage Verified – Sire and Dam verified through DNA. Meaning, the sire and dam of every ram entered must also be genotyped with Sheep Ireland. If a sire or dam mismatches and is removed, the animal must have a new sire or dam assigned via genomic parentage predictions to be eligible for the sale.
Scrapie Type– 1, 2, or 3. This information is available in your genomic results screen.
Ram Inspection– physically correct when presented at intake. A thorough inspection on all rams to the sale will be carried out upon entry. Any sheep which, in the inspector’s opinion, are not physically correct will be rejected immediately.

All flocks/breeders must have:

Data Quality Index(DQI)

A flock DQI of 85% or higher at the time of catalogue printing. View your DQI score on your online account at www.sheep.ie, and update it manually by clicking “Recalculate”.

Flock Linkage Status –genetically linked in 2026.

Check your flock linkage status by visiting your €uroStar profile through your online account. Flock linkage will be updated after all the 2026 lambing data has been submitted to the database, generally available in mid-May.

Friday Night Intake for all rams

All rams are required to pass through intake on the Friday evening, with no exceptions. Intake of all rams will be taking place on Friday 21^stAugust between 5-8pm, to facilitate an early sale start time on the Saturday morning.

Pre-Entries

Once again, there will be a pre-entry system that will be closing on Friday, 26^thJune. Only breeders who enter at this stage will gain access to the final entries in early August. Details of pre-entries will be circulated in early June.

Important: pre-entering for the sale does not guarantee entry to the sale. All criteria highlighted above must be met at final entries.

The deadline for receipt of final entries will be Tuesday, August 4^th.

Number of Rams eligible to be entered

Flock size is determined by the number of pedigree ewes that lambed down to a pedigree ram of the same breed. Flock size will determine the number of rams a breeder can enter for their relevant breed. If a breeder has more than one breed, they are eligible to enter rams from each breed.

The No. of ewes per breed includes recipient ewes who give birth to pedigree lambs as well as pedigree ewes. So for example if a breeder has 10 Pedigree ewes and 10 recipients lambed for a breed, the total no. of ewes would be 20, meaning they could bring 3 rams for that breed.

Important: these numbers may be subject to change depending on the volume of entries.

No. of ewes lambed per breed

No. of Rams

1-15 Ewes

16-30 Ewes

31-45 Ewes

46+ Ewes

Non-attendance on the day of the sale and fees

Any breeder that enters rams into the sale and subsequently cannot attend the sale should contact Sheep Ireland before the sub’s deadline of Monday, August 17^th, to allow us to withdraw animals from the official sales catalogue. If rams are catalogued for sale and breeders do not present rams on the day, breeders will be refused entry to the sale in 2027.

No entry fee is required for this sale and sellers will pay a 2.5% commission that will be discounted by the mart.

Genotyping precautions

Due to the possibility of a ram having a sire or dam changed and/or having a change in €uroStar values following genotyping, it is advised to genotype an additional ram(s) as substitutes well in advance of the sale. It could take up to 4 weeks from the ram’s tissue sample arriving in the lab until the ram having a genomic evaluation, so this process cannot be completed at short notice.

It is advised that potential rams for the sale are DNA sampled and returned to the lab no later than June 1^st, this will allow sufficient time for rams to be re-sampled in the event of the sample failing the quality control checks at the lab or to rectify any parentage errors found.

If you have any questions or queries on the sale, please contact us at 023-8820451or e-mail us at [email protected]