James Alexander hosted the second annual Jalex livestock sheep sale on his home farm in Co Antrim last week, with a great trade throughout.

Nearly 1,000 sheep packed the shed for what is considered to be the largest on-farm sale seen on the island of Ireland.

While the majority of stock offered for sale were pens of crossbreds across a number of breeds, this year the sale also included a number of purebred rams.

The highlight of the night came when one of these shearling Suffolk rams hit the market at £6,100. Two Aberdeenshire-based breeders fought hard to secure the pick of the lots before the hammer was eventually knocked down. The high-seller is a son of stock ram Scrogton Jack the Lad and is out of a Straghbogie-bred ewe.

Speaking after the sale, James said: “I intended to sell the tups in Kelso, but because of coronavirus I brought them here. But I’m delighted with them here; £6,100 for a tup in your home yard. My goodness, couldn’t wish for better.

“I’m trying to breed a very specific type of Suffolk and try to create my own demand for it. There is a hunger out there for a nicer, smoother-skinned, less heavy-boned Suffolk.”

The flock is aiming to breed a more commercially viable ram that will work for them as well as their customers. This is true for all the breeds the farm runs, with the aim to breed ewes which are suitable for breeding.

Over 900 commercial sheep were offered for sale, selling in lots of anything from five or six up to 12 or 14. All these gimmers are 100% grass-fed, having not received creep as lambs or meal ahead of the sale. These sheep came from a number of different crosses from breeds such as Suffolk, Cheviots, Scotch, Texel, Border Leicester and Beltex. Overall, these pens averaged at £245/head to a top of £350/head.

The majority of the pedigree Suffolk shearlings on offer all came into four-figure sums, with a small number of Suffolk-Texel-cross shearling rams from Jack Smyth also hitting these figures.