Last weekend’s 12th Annual Multi-Breed Ram Sale presented by Sheep Ireland turned out to be the most successful sale they have ever hosted. They are happy to report that, “There was a real buzz around the ring, and it was clear that the farmers attending were placing a lot of emphasis and trust in the Sheep Ireland €uroStars.”
The well-supported event took place in Tullamore Mart on Saturday, 27 August, 2022.
The sale had an overall clearance of 87%, which is slightly up from last year’s 84%. The average price all 9 breeds on the day was €664, up €46 from the 2021 average of €618. Rams were sold to all 26 counties.
This was the largest ever catalogued ram sale in the country, with the highest entry criteria ever set for any Irish ram sale, making it a truly unique sale.
Sheep Ireland’s Manager Kevin McDermott spoke to LSL about the day – read his comments here.
Here is Sheep Ireland Ram Sale Report – 2022:
The level of engagement from the breeders who entered this sale was fantastic. Breeders had a lot of hurdles to cross before entering a ram in this sale, and commercial farmers are rewarding them for this. More and more commercial farmers are demanding top-quality, physically correct rams with excellent breeding values (€uro-Stars) to back it up.
Each year the number of pedigree breeders’ performance recording is increasing and each year the number of commercial farmers searching for €uro-Stars before they purchase is also rising. All this bodes well for the sheep industry, and Sheep Ireland intends to keep this positive trend on the rise for next year.
Sheep Ireland is very happy with the average clearance and prices, as this shows a good balance between the supply of rams at the sale and the demand to buy them.
This year’s sale had the highest levels of entry criteria ever needed to enter a ram sale, making the collection of rams and breeders on the day amongst the most elite in the country.
- Every breeder was required to have a Data Quality Index (DQI) of 70%+.
- Every flock in the sale needed to be genetically linked.
- Every ram must have passed a thorough physical inspection (7% of rams were rejected on the morning of the sale based on physical inspections).
- Every ram in the sale must be 5 Star (Top 20% of the breed) on either the Replacement or Terminal Index.
- Every ram was DNA sire verified to increase the confidence to potential buyers, and 57% were also Dam verified.
- Every ram in the sale must have a Genomic Evaluation
View the catalogue here.
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