The Mayo Mule and Greyface Group have a new sales process for its 34th annual premier sale.

The group is introducing a two-day back-to-back sale with a larger entry of in excess of 1,000 hoggets confined to Friday 24 August, while the usual entry of about 2,250 ewe lambs will go under the hammer on Saturday 25 August.

Demand

Mayo Mule and Greyface Group chair Joe Scahill said the move was made in a bid to satisfy customer demand.

“Feedback we have got in recent years is that there is more of an appetite from hogget customers to get hoggets in early and settled well in advance of the breeding season.

"We will now have a greater offering of over 1,000 hoggets while we will still have 250 to 300 hoggets sold with ewe lambs on the second sale date on 8 September for buyers who prefer to source replacements later.

“Holding both ewe lambs and a higher number of ewe hoggets together on the first sale date wouldn’t be possible in terms of the amount of penning available.”

Change

Joe acknowledges that the sale will represent a change for buyers looking to source both ewe hoggets and ewe lambs but says the society has put measures in place to ensure all customers are catered for.

Little crossover

“We have generally found little crossover between buyers for ewe hoggets and ewe lambs on the first sale date.

"If there are any purchasing sheep on the two days we have facilities in place to hold ewe hoggets over to the Saturday while we will continue to try and facilitate buyers in organising transport if required.

"Last year we had buyers from 21 counties on the first sale date and it suited some to pool together for transport.”

Vaccination

Another new element the group is promoting for 2018 is vaccination for enzootic abortion and toxoplasmosis.

“There are often a few buyers who want sheep in and ready to breed for earlier lambing and as such face difficulties where vaccinating for enzootic abortion or toxoplasmosis. We should have in the region of 100 hoggets or more that are vaccinated and will service this demand while all sheep have received a full vaccination course for clostridial diseases”.

While the sale of ewe lambs will change to the Saturday, the show of ewe lambs will take place on the Friday with each breeder allowed to put forward one pen for showing. The show takes place at 9am with the sale on both days starting at 11am.