The Donegal Pedigree Cheviot Group is holding its annual premier sale this Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00p.m at Stranorlar Mart in Co. Donegal.
The show will begin at 5:00p.m. Judging the males will be Tomas McCarthy from the Borris Sheep Breeders’ Association and tasked with judging the females is Kieran Byrne from Glencolmcille Co. Donegal.
The sale will consist of approximately 60 pedigree registered Cheviot hogget rams and 50 pedigree females. The females will consist of both ewe lambs and hoggets.
The females on offer will provide opportunities for new Cheviot breeders to purchase foundation breeding stock. Scrapie genotyped ARR rams are eligible for export on the night of the sale.
All sheep in the sale have full pedigree information available in the catalogue and will be sold with pedigree certificates.
The Donegal Pedigree Cheviot Group said it has worked closely with Sheep Ireland over the past number of years in establishing a pedigree Cheviot flock book.
The group are now quickly building the generations of ancestry information within their flockbook.
This ancestry information is being validated and backed-up by genotyping which is ensuring that the parentage information is 100% accurate while also providing invaluable information on inbreeding levels.
The hogget rams are all genotyped and sire verified using DNA. Scrapie genotypes are also available in the catalogues.