The Irish Texel Sheep Society’s premier show and sale achieved a record sale at Blessington Mart in Co. Wicklow last week.
It kicked off on Friday with the show, which was under the watchful eye of Dye Clark of Clarks flock in Scotland, while the sale of females took place that evening at 6:00p.m, followed by the sale of males on Saturday.
The reserve male champion was Silver Hill He’s A Cracker, coming from Neville Myle’s flock in Co. Donegal, a son of Hexel Fan Club.
This double five star lamb gathered much attention over the two days and made him the sale topper at €20,000.
The second highest price on the day was again the Farrell duo of Pat and Barry with a full brother to the reserve overall champion, a Hilltop Golden Eye son and from their top breeding Teiglum ewe.
This ram lamb, Oberstown Hercules, sold for €18,000 to the Corbo, Manview and Ballygroogan flocks.
Coming in close behind at €15,000 was Annefield Hugo, a son of Claybury Dunkirk and out of the overall champion from last year who is from the same Oberstown/Teiglum line and was the choice of the Greene and McLoughlin flocks from Co. Donegal.
Next was a full brother to the sale topper from Neville Myles with a Fan Club son, selling to the Greenhill flock of John and Colm McHugh.
Jarlath Joyce was back in the money with a full brother to Irene Donnnelly’s lamb selling for €5,000 to Dwayne Sheils.
The next three rams traded at €4,500 with the first being a full brother to last years sale topper Brian Dvilly selling to John and Colm McHugh.
It was then another full brother to the sale topper from Neville Myles sold to Declan Mangan, while another at the same money came from the same pen, and sold to Anthony Rowland.
The last to trade above the €4,000 mark was Emma Wharton selling her son of Seaford Groovy Baby.
Texel Premier show
The first class on Friday at the Texel Premier show was the shearling ewe with the first prize in this class going to John Neville, Co. Wexford with a Glenside Forever daughter, she later went on to sell for €2,000 to new breeder Thomas Whitehead.
It quickly then went on to the ewe lambs with the judges fancy going to Pat and Barry Farrell with a Hilltop Golden Eye daughter. Farrells have claimed this title for the last three years.
This ewe lamb later took the female championship and reserve overall champion. It’s worth noting that last year it was her maternal sister that was female champion. She was the pick for Thomas Whitehead who purchased her €4,500.
It was the second prize lamb in came from Patrick and James Murphy who also later claimed the reserve female title, sired by Hexel Fan Club, she sold for €1,800 to Jimmy Garrivan from Co. Mayo.
Other leading prices came from the Farrells, with the highest price shearling ewe selling at €3,500 sired by Rhaeadr Entrepreneur. She was a full sister to last years champion and sold to Neville Myles.
Next up in the shearling ewes was another Entrepreneur daughter from Ryan Doherty, which sold to Thomas Kenny for €3,000.
With the top spot on the Friday in the show going to the winner of the Open class from John Redmond of the Knockhill flock in Carlow with a son of Forkins Fancy, the judge followed this lamb the whole way through making him male champion and overall champion. He subsequently purchased him for €3,100 the following day for his Clarks flock.
The winner of the Shearling ram class was a Hexel Fever Tree son from Liam Dillon selling for €1,100.
The winner of the Lamb Plus class Neville Myles with another Hexel Fan Club he later sold for €1,700 to James Kelly.
The winner of the Novice class was Iris and Irene Brazil with a son of Oberstown Fergo, he sold for €1,200.
A son of Knockhill Great Expectations that won the Irish sired class from Jarlath Joyce later in the sale went on to sell for €5,500 to Flor Ryan and Johnny Donohoe.
Premier sale
Overall there was a strong female trade at the sale on Friday with quality lots in demand. The shearling ewes had a strong clearance of 81% at €1,021 for 50 sold.
Ewe lambs were in high demand for the quality lots offered for sale with the average hitting €1,115 showing a 66% percent clearance.
On Saturday it was the turn of the males to hit the ring and from the start the atmosphere was electric around the yard.
The trade was strong throughout in the males with the breeders seeking top genetics to add to their flocks with 34 rams making €2,000 or more.
It still left a huge amount of shearling rams selling and ram lambs for the commercial farmer in the €600 to €1,200 bracket.
Shearling rams averaged €1,125 with a 97% clearance and ram lambs saw an 89% clearance with a €1,708 average.
This figure was being driven by the pedigree higher prices. When removing anything over 3k the average was €1,098.
The charity sale was held after the female sale on Friday night, with all proceeds (€2,400) raised being donated to ‘Daras legacy’.