Sheep Ireland will hold its annual LambPlus €uroStar multi-breed Ram Sale in Tullamore on Sat 25th Aug. Entry to this sale will be limited to flocks that carry out Ultrasound scanning in 2018 as well as other criteria around €uroStars, minimum Acc% and Flock DQI. This applies to all breeds. The criteria for this year are as follows:
- 5 Star in either Replacement or Terminal Index
- Achieve an overall flock DQI of at least 65% (up from 60% in 2017). DQI scores can be found on a breeders personal Sheep Ireland account on www.sheep.ie
- At least 35% accuracy on the rams qualifying 5 Star Index (same as in 2017)
- The flocks with rams entered must have been muscle & fat scanned in the ram’s year of birth
- Breeders wishing to bring hogget rams to the sale need to have scanned in 2017 and in 2018 (as data from both years will contribute to the indexes of these hogget’s).
- *New for 2018: the breeder’s flock must be genetically linked for the relevant breed (please see your current linkage status on your €uroStar Profile). Flocks that are unlinked will not qualify for the LambPlus Sale
- Ram Inspection – All rams must be physically correct similar to any breed society sale. Sheep Ireland will carry out a thorough ram inspection on the day and will inspect all rams upon entry to the sale. Any sheep which in our opinion are unfit for breeding will be rejected immediately
Sale Allocation
Breeders are permitted to enter four rams from each breed in their flock. Based on feedback from Breed Societies an extra ram may be allocated to breeders depending on the number of rams entered in the sale. Breeders who may receive an extra allocation will be notified on Monday 13th August. The sale will be run on a breed by breed basis and each breed will have two ballots. There will be two rings in operation on the day. The order in which breeds enter the ring and the ring they go through will be determined once all the entries for the sale have been received.
DQI
For tailored suggestions on how breeders can improve their flocks DQI, check out the DQI link in your personal login account. A breeders DQI reflects your performance recording on a seasonal basis. The current DQI algorithm has been updated this year. This means the weightings for timeliness, quality, and quantity of data have been updated accordingly. Recording lambing information and weights in a prompt manner has a big impact on your DQI rating as has been communicated in the LambPlus Sign-up letter. Due to these updates breeders should not see significant fluctuations in their DQI rating throughout the year if their information is recorded in a timely manner.
Sale day Information
Sheep Ireland will provide all the bedding on the day of the sale and breeders are not permitted to use their own bedding. We would encourage breeders to be present at the mart as early as possible, although we do appreciate that many will have long journeys to make on the day. Sheep Ireland representatives and ram inspectors will be ready in the mart from 9.00am, so breeders can aim to arrive from this time onwards. Pens will be allocated to each breeder with names attached. All sheep must be inspected and penned by 11.30am.
Non-attendance on the day of the sale
Any breeder that enters rams into the sale and subsequently can’t attend the sale should contact Sheep Ireland before the subs deadline of Monday 20th to allow us to withdraw animals from the official sales catalogue. No entry fee is required for this sale however where rams are catalogued for sale and breeders do not present rams on the day, breeders will be refused entry to the sale in 2019. This is a decision taken by the board of Sheep Ireland.
Pictures
We are always looking for pictures of rams and this would be a good way to advertise your ram before the sale. If you interested in sending us in a picture we may put it up on Facebook with the breeder name and lot number for the sale. We may also use these pictures to advertise this sale.
If interested please forward pictures to [email protected] titled Ram Pic along with the rams ID or whatsapp them to 086 792 5679.
If you have any questions or queries on the sale please contact us on 023-8820451 or e-mail us at [email protected]