This past weekend’s Cooley Sheep Breeders Show and Sale featured around 4000 sheep, and it saw LSL Auctions reaching an audience of almost 2000.
Carnaross Mart’s Emma Muldoon happily confirms that “it was a massive sale with plenty of interest.” This she says was due to a range of factors, “because it’s only once a year and also the offering of different types of sheep. And the weather would have benefitted online, as nobody wanted to be out.”
She notes that hoggets were dear, and that “trade was very high – with about 98% clearance rate, which is quite unusual to have it so high for sheep. Everything was a very high standard.”
The sale drew around 300 people, and it was “a mixed-age crowd. There were all local sellers, and people were buying from all over Ireland, as they availed of the free haulage.”
Emma adds that the show served as a good event to stimulate interest, “it’s a great idea really, especially for people who are starting off to see all the offerings in one place.”
Scottish Blackface sheep of Lanark type saw a brisk trade. Some ewe hoggets sold from €200 to €278 for the first prize-winning pen, which were also judged reserve champions. Scottish Blackface lambs sold from €140 to €180, with smaller-framed and quality lambs from €110 to €130. .
Suffolk hoggets met a steady trade, with top-quality large-framed lots selling from €190 to €225, while medium-sized lots sold back to €165 to €170. Meanwhile Hiltex hoggets prices ranged from €140 to €200, while a selection of Cheviot-cross and Bluefaced Leicester-cross hoggets sold as high as €240.
Buyers can look forward to next year’s Cooley Sheep Breeders Show, which will once again take place in the first week of September in 2023.
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