Roscommon Mart’s weekly sheep sale on Wednesday included a good entry of about 20 lots of ewes with lambs at foot.

Demand and prices paid was helped by the quality of sheep on offer, with many outfits comprising either young ewes and lambs with good potential or aged ewes in good condition and strong lambs at foot.

Prices for such twin lamb lots ranged in general from €250 to €285, with the top price recorded on five occasions.

Two third-crop ewes with good-quality Charollais-sired lambs at foot sold for €285.

Two second-crop ewes with twin lambs at foot aged about four to five weeks old sold for €285.

This third-crop Suffolk ewe with a strong Charollais cross lamb at foot sold for €200.

This second-crop Suffolk ewe with a good-quality Texel-cross lamb at foot sold for €200.

This medium-sized Suffolk third-crop ewe with a strong Texel-cross lamb at foot sold for €200.

These young ewes with young twin Suffolk-cross lambs at foot sold for €265.

This large-framed full mouth and fleshed Suffolk ewe with a strong Charollais lamb at foot sold for €220.

A couple of lots of plainer-quality types sold back to €200, while a single Scottish Blackface ewe and her two young lambs at foot sold for €150.

Aged ewes with strong lambs at foot sold in the region of €200 for medium-sized ewes with top prices rising to €220 for large-framed ewes with strong lambs at foot.

This large-framed ewe weighing 100kg sold for €184.

This batch of ewes with some lacking flesh and weighing 64.16kg on average sold for €90 per head.

These two good-quality ewes with a good cover of flesh and weighing 99.5kg on average sold for €194 each.

These two cull ewes weighing 92kg on average sold for €182 each.

These Suffolk ewe hoggets weighing 49.9kg on average sold for €163 each.

Cull ewe trade

An entry of almost 50 cull ewes met a steady trade. Large-framed ewes weighing from 90kg to 100kg liveweight sold from €180 to a top of €194 for a couple of ewes weighing 99.5kg. Ewes weighing 75kg to 80kg and possessing an average cover of flesh sold from €120 to €150, while light ewes weighing from 65kg to 68kg sold from €90 upwards to €125 for well-fleshed ewes.

Hogget prices

Fleshed hoggets weighing 55kg to 60kg liveweight sold in a tight price range from €163 to €167 while hoggets weighing 48kg to 50kg sold from €155 to €161.

A couple of pens of mixed-quality hoggets including some small-framed hoggets lacking flesh and weighing from 46kg to 48kg on average sold from €142 to €144 while one pen of 35kg store hoggets sold for €105.

These ewe hoggets with an average weight of 63.08kg sold for €165 each.

This batch of ewe hoggets weighing 60kg on average sold for €165 each.

These Suffolk and Texel cross ewe hoggets weighing 58.8kg on average sold for €167 each.

This pen of mixed-quality hoggets which were matched poorly and weighed in at 48.3kg on average sold for €142 each.

These large-framed hoggets weighing 77kg on average sold for €165 per head.