The Irish Vendéen Sheep Society Premier Show and Sale took place in Roscommon on Wednesday 23 July.

The sale went well with an almost 80% clearance of rams. Both prices and clearance were up on 2013. The ring was crowded for the entire sale and the bidding was brisk, with lots of demand for quality Vendéen sheep.

Terminal traits

The Ballinascraw flock of the Lynch Family, Ballinalee, Co Longford took first prize in the LambPlus 5-star class for terminal traits. This was followed by a record-breaking first, second, third and fourth in the open ram lamb class and first and fifth in the shearling ewe class.

The Lynch family flock won the championship trophy for production, the Pat Oliver Performance Cup. They followed this with the overall championship and reserve championship.

It did not end there, though. In the sales ring the Champion was sold for 1,000gns to Mike Edgeworth from Waterford and the other four averaged over 600gns each.

The judge on the day was Fred Coulter from Ballymena, Co Antrim.