Sheep Ireland’s 3rd Annual Hill Ram Sale was held in Manorhamilton mart on Friday evening 9th of October.

The sale was a multibreed hill ram sale, with 214 hill rams entered across 6 hill breeds.  All rams entered were Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) eligible for hill flocks, meaning they were genotyped and sire verified with a scrapie result of 1, 2 or 3. There were lambs, hogget’s and aged rams available on the evening. The sale also provided a one stop shop for purchasers interested in more than one breed of ram.

Breed	Average price (€)	Lowest price (€)	Top price (€)	No. through the ring	Clearance %
Perth	246	200	420	16	81
Lanark	387	240	680	13	23
Swaledale	200	200	200	3	67
Mayo Connemara	515	220	1420	72	33
Cheviot	512	210	1020	55	56
North Country Cheviot	441	230	1000	25	52
Overall	450	200	1420	184	47

 

The hogget rams presented had an average price of €540, with a 43% clearance.; Ram lambs averaged €253, with a 59% clearance.

Perth

First into Ring 1 was the Perth’s, who had a breed average of €246 on the day. 16 perths went through ring 1, eleven of these were ram lambs. There was a range of €200 to €420 on the evening. The Perth’s had an 81% clearance on the evening, the highest breed clearance. Top priced perth in the ring was Lot 11, a hogget ram bred by Kieran Hilley that sold for €420.

Lanark 

There were 13 Lanarks through the ring on the evening . Lot 20 was the top priced Lanark at €680, a  ram bred by Mark and JJ Gallagher. Prices ranged from €240 to €680, with a breed average of €387. The breed had a 23% clearance on the evening.

Swaledale 

The Swaledales had 3 rams go through the ring for the breed with two of the rams presented finding new homes, giving the breed a clearance of 67%. Both ram lambs sold for €2oo.

Mayo Connemara

The Mayo Connemara’s had the largest entry of rams, with 72 rams going through Ring 1. The breed’s price ranged from €220 to €1420 on the night.  The average price for the breed was €515. Top priced ram of the sale was Lot 63, a  hogget ram bred by John Greavy. The breed had a clearance of 33%.

Cheviot

The Cheviot breed was the second largest number of rams through the ring with 55 rams through ring 2, with an average of €512. Cheviots sold with a price range of €210 to €1020. The second highest price of the sale was Lot 171, a hogget bred by Michael Geaney. The Cheviots had a clearance of 56%.

North Country Cheviot 

The North Country Cheviots had 25 rams of the breed presented on the night with a 52% clearance. The breed average was €441 with a range from €230 to €1000 on the day.

Top priced North Country Cheviot ram on the night was lot 195, a hogget ram bred by Conor McEneaney.

 

Finally, Sheep Ireland would like to thank everyone who contributed to the running of the sale, including our sponsors FBD Insurance, Cormac Tagging and Weatherby’s Scientific , the auctioneers, the mart staff, ram inspectors, breeders and buyers.