Farming in Co. Cavan, James Dunne, a suckler and sheep farmer, is getting ready to head for Carrick-On-Shannon once again, this year, for the Big Boy Ram Sale.
James has been making the annual trip to Carrick for the last four years, ever since the inaugral sale in 2018, organised by Stuart Dorran and like-minded breeders such as James.
The ever-growing sale is set for this Friday, July 30, kicking off at 5:00p.m at The Showgrounds, in Carrick-On-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
Last year, the Cavan-native topped the sale with a Texel ram that sold for €1,120, and this year he is heading back again with 11 Texel ram lambs and seven Aber rams – a breed that have been growing in popularity in recent times.
During the week, Agriland caught up with James at his farm in Cavan, to check out what he will have on offer at the sale this year and to talk about how the Big Boy Ram Sale has grown since its inaugural sale in 2018.
Background on the sheep flock
James, who farms alongside his father John, also works full-time off-farm. When not working off-farm, he can be found helping his father run both their commercial and pedigree cattle and sheep enterprises on their 120ac farm of mixed-quality land.
Delving into the sheep side of the farm, the Dunnes run a flock of 160 ewes split between pedigree and commercial ewes.
The pedigree flock consists of 40 Texel ewes from which the ram lambs set for Carrick are bred from. These ram lambs were sired by Loosebeare Chief (pictured below), who was bought privately for a five-figure sum last year.
The majority of the pedigree flock are artificially inseminated (AI’d) (by Loosebeare Chief), with a proportion run with Bluefaced Leicester rams to produce Abers – with lambing commencing in the first week in February.
All Texel lambs are performance recorded through Sheep Ireland.
Speaking about using AI and carrying out embryo transfer work on a small number of ewes and the purpose of it, James said: “The purpose of it really is to be able to generate females from our own flock.
“So the idea is to pick out long-lasting females that have all the commecial traits that we look for, rather than breeding a ‘show Texel’.
“Who we are targeting are the commercial farmers on that front. We are looking to produce a Texel with lots of length, power, easy fleshing and Texels that are going to live long and have a bit more neck in them, and a little less head.
“Basically, we are striving to produce Texels with traits that commerical farmers want.”
The commercial flock is made up of Lleyn-cross Texel or Suffolk-cross ewes. Although, James is moving more towards that Aber-cross type of sheep – as he finds them a bigger and stronger type of ewe that produce lambs that have good skin, are easily fleshed and well able to finish off-grass.
Touching on the commercial flock, James added: “We scan anywhere from 1.85 to 2.1 lambs and the target is to wean a minimum of 1.75 lambs per ewe.
“We lamb the commercial ewes around the middle of March – after the pedigrees and keep the best ewe lambs for breeding and draft off the rest for the factory.”
A look at what rams will be on offer at the Big Boy Ram Sale
Touching on the Big Boy Ram Sale and how it has grown over the years, James said: “It’s been growing year-on-year.
“The sale sees rams put forward for sale that are the type and have the traits that a commercial farmer is looking for.
“It has grown in size and popularity since its initiation four years ago. This year, I’ll be putting seven Aber rams forward for it and 11 Texel rams. My rams are on a grass-based diet mainly, on top of getting half a kilo of ration daily.
“There will be up to 180 rams on offer at the sale this year, with a number of breeds for prospective buyers to choose from.
“There will be a good mix of both pedigree and hybrid rams on offer.
“I feel myself, that the quality of rams on offer is improving year-on year and the bunch I have going this year, I think is the best yet I’ll have had at it.”
Abers
Speaking about the Aber rams that will be on offer at Carrick-On-Shannon and how he came about breeding them himself James said: “I suppose where the Bluefaced Leicester-cross Texel hybrid came about was when I attended a number of flock visits over in the UK.
“I seen that cross work extremely well on commerical flocks. They are very hardy sheep, with good fleshing and mothering ability.
“And really leave that sharp female that can rare two lambs – that can be finished off-grass no problem.
“I came home then and because we had pedigree Texel ewes, we decided to purchase some Bluefaced Leicester rams from the UK – the best that we could find – and crossed them with a proportion of the pedigree ewes.
“We are very happy with how we are getting on with them and there appears to be a growing demand for them as well.
“The Aber shearling rams we have going to the Big Boy sale this year worked very well for us last year as ram lambs and are ready for work. I was very happy with how I got on last year with them, so hopefully, that will be the case again this year.”
Close up shots of rams
Topping the Charolais sale in Tullamore
As well as the sheep, the Dunnes also keep 35 suckler cows – made up of both pedigree and commercial cows.
Speaking about the suckler herd, James said: “We keep 12 pedigree cows, the most of which consist of Charolais cows, as well as some Angus and Simmentals.
“We run a predominately spring-calving system. We have a good year so far as regards the Charolais bull sales.
“We had three Charolais bulls at the Charolais Society sale in Tullamore in May and we topped it at €11,200 and also got €6,000 and €5,200 for the other two bulls on the same day.
“Like with the sheep, we are trying to breed from within, so it was very satisfying to get on so well with the bulls as they were bred from females we had bred ourselves,” James concluded.
