The demand for performance recorded rams this year is at its highest level ever, thanks in no small part to the Sheep Technology Adoption Programme (STAP) according to Sheep Ireland.

In its latest update it said that the ram sale season is at its peak now and there are regional breed society sales taking place all over the country and the vast majority of these sales contain the €uroStar evaluations within the sales catalogue.

Sheep Ireland says every society has a different approach to incorporating this important data in their sales catalogues. For the Texel, Belclare, Vendeen and Galway societies, all sales catalogues are generated directly from the Sheep Ireland database which results in the relevant €uroStar information appearing automatically.

All other breed societies generate their own sales catalogues independently, with the Sheep Ireland €uroStars then manually incorporated into these catalogues. Sheep Ireland are providing €uroStar information to these breed societies on a daily basis upon request.

Sheep Ireland noted that unfortunately it is are hearing reports from some farmers that they are attending some breed society sales where the visibility of €uroStar information is non-existent.

It said that this is very disappointing from Sheep Ireland’s point of view as we have made it clear that we are more than happy to provide this information for inclusion in sales catalogues at any time.

A full directory of performance recording breeders is available on www.sheep.ie for farmers still looking for €uroStar rams for the coming season.

Sheep Ireland also invite calls from farmers and breeders where there is any doubt about where to find €uroStar rams and we will continue to work with societies to ensure that this information is available in all ram sale catalogues, provided that there are recorded animals present in the sale in question.