A hugely successful sale of Suffolks in Blessington Mart on Saturday saw Arthur and Patrick O’Keeffe of the Annakisha and Clyda pedigree sheep flocks take home not only the red rosette in the open ram class, but also the male championship title and the supreme overall championship title with their January-born ram lamb Annakisha Bright Eye.

The five-star ram had previously scooped the reserve championship title at the national finals in Gurteen at Sheep 2023 in June.

The champion ram lamb was sired by Blackbrae AB President and sold in Blessington for a hugely impressive €20,000 to a prominent Scottish flock.

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Bright Eye’s dam is a full sister to Annakisha McLovin, which was the reserve champion at the premier show and sale in 2019, and the sire was also the reserve champion in Ballymena in 2022 before he went on to sell for 10,000gns.

Standing in reserve

Standing in the reserve championship spot ahead of the sale was AJ and JA Lucas from the renowned Finn Vale flock from Co Donegal with their January-born ram lamb Finn Vale BFG.

BFG was sired by last year's premier sale champion Finn Vale I’m the Man. He sold to a Northern Ireland breeder for €2,600.

Check out next week's Irish Farmers Journal for the full story.