It’s that time of year again, when flock owners head off to the sales to purchase some replacement animals.

All past memories of expensive hoggets and ewe lambs that under-performed or even died are banished, as wild optimism becomes the order of the day. And if breeding rams are required, then common sense is left in the mart car park as we parade up and down the rows of pampered animals on display.

It’s also the silly season when it comes to believing some of the daft yarns being spun by those offering stock for sale.

For example, at the Mule sale in Ballymena a few weeks ago, I was told on several occasions that “them’s alterin’ sheep”.

This is a sentiment expressed by many sellers, meaning that, as soon as these ewes arrive in your yard, they will pile on weight and double in size in a matter of weeks.

A neighbour of mine tells a story about buying ewe lambs many years ago at one of the outdoor sales in the Glens of Antrim.

The lambs were sold as “straight off the mountain”; the inference being they had only ever grazed poor pasture and certainly hadn’t tasted concentrate. When he got them home, the first thing they did was to hop up into a cattle trough and polish off the remnants of the meal for the bullocks.

Naturally reared

Ram breeders nowadays place great emphasis on their stock being “naturally reared”, and I’m pretty certain that an accurate translation would be: spoilt rotten, treated like babies, cosseted, overfed, and not really bred for true commercial endurance.

However, I do accept there are some that are treated more realistically than others. Knowing which to choose, and what to ignore; that is the real dilemma.

Perhaps I’m casting too many negative aspersions at breeding sales. I must admit that I bought Mule hoggets on a Saturday, and then four days later bought two Texel shearlings at the premier sale (also in Ballymena).

And what’s more, I thoroughly enjoyed both outings, and came home with livestock that looks great.

The Mules were mostly sucked, have been vaccinated for both abortion diseases, and cost £150. Judging by the trade early in the sale, I honestly thought it would take £170 to buy what I wanted, but as the sale progressed, trade definitely slackened.

Some sellers were far from happy with prices being offered, but I didn’t see any real quality being sold for much under its value.

At the ram sale, a similar theme applied, with most buyers getting what they paid for. I bought one ram at £850 and the other at £600. There were perfectly decent rams making a lot less money, but anything under £450 seemed to be lacking in at least one characteristic. If the money was light, then so were his hindquarters. Or if he had a good set of hams, and was only making £300 guineas, then he lacked length or width, or both.

Skins

There is one current trend that both breeding ewes and pedigree rams are aiming for, and that is tight skins. As far as I can see, this is something of a misnomer, because it’s nothing to do with the skin and simply describes the shortness of the wool (or in some cases the near lack of it).

Theoretically, it is meaningless and should be as pointless as the angle of their ears, yet all the stock I bought (or bid for) displayed this trait. I cannot defend my reasoning for deliberately buying animals with a scant covering of wool, except that those half-Texel females bred from Mule ewes really do make good-looking sheep. The bare-bellied appearance, with the wool split from their chin to their brisket, is the must-have style statement from the world of ovine fashion.

It’s vitally important that we try to make our sheep farming as profitable as possible, but if we stop working with stock that visually please us, then surely we’ve lost the very essence of why we farm in the first place.