Sheep Ireland will host its annual EuroStar Multi-breed Ram Sale in Tullamore on Saturday, August 26.

A record entry of 350 rams will be on offer on the day – a considerable increase on the 215 rams on offer at the corresponding sale held last year.

The sale includes: 15 Vendeen rams; 67 Suffolk rams; 130 Charollais rams; 94 Texel rams; 28 Belclare rams, eight Rouge de l’Ouest rams; and one Beltex ram.

Given the shear size of the sale, two sales rings will be in operation in Tullamore Mart on the day. The sale of Vendeen rams will commence at 12:00pm in sale ring one, followed by Suffolk, Rouge de l’Ouest, Beltex and lastly Texel.

Charollais and Belclare rams will be sold in the second ring.

Sheep Ireland ram sale

Eamon Wall of Sheep Ireland believes the sale will be a big event and one not to be missed by commercial sheep farmers. He said: “This is the ideal sale for commercial farmers to pick up their next stock ram.”

Sheep Ireland holds one multi-breed ram sale every year in order to help promote EuroStar rams and to give farmers an opportunity to source some of the top sheep genetics in the country.

Due to the demand from breeders to enter rams, each ram has to fulfill high criteria in order to be eligible for the sale, Wall explained.

All rams must be 5-star on either the terminal or replacement index, with a minimum accuracy of 35%.

Only breeders that have carried out ultrasound muscle and back-fat scanning in 2017 can enter the sale. In addition, breeders can only enter the Sheep Ireland sale if their flock Data Quality Index (DQI) is in excess of 60%.

A thorough physical inspection will also be carried out on all rams entering the sale on day.

The Sheep Ireland EuroStar Ram Sale catalogue will be available on the Sheep Ireland website from Tuesday, August 22.

The sale will commence at 12:00pm in Tullamore Mart on Saturday, August 26.