Sheep Irelands’ first ever Hill ram sale was held in Manorhamilton mart on Friday evening the 11th of October.
The sale was a multibreed hill ram sale, with 125 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 strict entry criteria provided buyer confidence for sheep farmers who needed to purchase a ram for the scheme as 100% of the rams presented were scheme eligible. The sale also provided a one stop shop for purchasers interested in more than one breed of ram. All rams were physically inspected at intake and any ram that failed inspection was denied entry to the sale.
The sale had an overall clearance of 89%, with an average price of €513 Prices of the sale ranged €200 to €1070 with rams available for every budget.
Breed | Average price (€) | Lowest price (€) | Top Price (€) | No. through the ring | Clearance Rate |
Mayo Connemara | 483 | 340 | 760 | 24 | 88% |
North Country Cheviot | 631 | 500 | 740 | 8 | 88% |
Swaledale | 321 | 270 | 420 | 11 | 64% |
Lanark | 402 | 260 | 620 | 14 | 100% |
Perth | 296 | 200 | 400 | 12 | 100% |
Cheviot | 668 | 340 | 1070 | 36 | 94% |
Overall | 513 | 200 | 1070 | 105 | 89% |
All rams at our Manorhamilton sale had to meet the entry criteria:
- All breeders were members of hill breeding groups
- All rams were genotyped through Sheep Ireland
- All rams were sire verified
- Scrapie type 1,2 or 3.
- SIS eligible
- Physically correct
Since the launch of the Sheep Improvement scheme the traceability on the hill sector has been hugely improved. Sire verification allows peace of mind to purchasers that rams are from different bloodlines than they would have purchased before. Sheep Ireland also has a search facility allowing farmers to check the level of inbreeding between two genotyped males (Genomic Inbreeding – Lambplus (sheep.ie)).
Mayo Connemara
The Mayo Connemara’s were first into the ring on the evening, kicking off the sale. Prices ranged from €340 to €760 with 20 of the 24 rams through the ring 2023 born (hogget’s).
The average price for the breed was €483. Top priced ram of the breed on the night was Lot 13, a hogget ram, bred by Alan Duffy and Sold by Joseph Reilly, Co. Mayo. The breed had a clearance of 88%.
North Country Cheviot
The North Country Cheviot rams were next into the ring, with 8 rams of the breed presented on the day and an 88% clearance. The breed average was €631 with a range from €500 to €740 on the day.
Top priced North Country Cheviot ram on the night was the last ram into the ring for the breed lot 37, a hogget bred by Aoife McGlynn, Co. Donegal.
Swaledale
The Swaledales had 11 rams go through the ring for the breed with an overall average of €321. Prices ranged from €270 to €420, with a clearance of 64%.
The swaledale awarded top price of the breed was Lot 51, a hogget, bred by James Dolan, Co. Leitrim.
Lanark
There were 14 Lanarks through the ring on the evening . Lot 62 was the top priced Lanark at €620, a hogget ram presented by Michael Ketch, Co. Waterford. Prices ranged from €260 to €620, with a breed average of €402. The Lanark’s were in high demand with a clearance of 100% on the evening.
Perth
The Perths had a breed average of €296 on the day. Similar to the swaledales, over half the perths presented were ram lambs. There was a range of €200 to €400 on the evening. The Perth were the second breed to have 100% clearance on the evening.
Top price ram was the last perth ram into the ring, Lot 82, a hogget ram bred by Patrick Whyte, Co. Waterford.
Cheviot
The cheviot breed had the highest average of the sale, as well as the largest number of rams through the ring. There were 36 rams through the ring, with an average of €668. Cheviots were in high demand with a range of €340 to €1070. The top priced ram of the sale was a cheviot hogget, Lot 99, bred by Joe Burke, Co. Laois. The cheviots had the third highest breed clearance of the evening at 94%.