The hammer fell at €3,000 for the top priced ram at the recent Donegal Cheviot Pedigree Breeders sale held in Ballybofey and Stranorlar Co-Operative Mart. The ram bred by Seán McHugh, Speenogue, Burt, Co Donegal was judged second in the show.

He is rated as five stars on the Sheep Ireland €uro-Star terminal index with a ‘days to slaughter’ figure in the top 1% of the breed and four stars on the replacement index. He is also Type 1 for scrapie status and is DNA sire verified. The ram was purchased by James McGonigle, Malin, Co Donegal.

There was keen demand on the day for similar well-bred rams possessing good size and strength and exhibiting positive attributes of the Cheviot breed. Eight of the 49 rams offered topped €1,000 per head, with three rams selling upwards of €2,000.

There was keen demand on the day for similar well-bred rams possessing good size and strength

Seán McHugh’s Speenogue flock featured strongly in the prizewinners listing with the first prizewinning ram selling for €2,050. This ram was also sired by Falcarragh genetics and was rated as five star on the terminal index and four stars on the replacement index.

The other ram making up the top three priced rams on the day was the fifth prizewinner bred by Manus McHugh, Figart, Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal. This ram was strong on replacement traits and was in the top 15% of the breed for number of lambs born and milk yield.

The remainder of the top five prizewinning rams selected on the day by judge Tomás McCarthy from Wicklow were also bred in the Figart and Speenogue flocks, with the third prizewinning ram bred by the Figart flock selling for €1,000 while the fourth placed ram bred by the Speenogue flock sold for €1,850.

Trickier trade

While the trade for the top-end rams was brisk there was a more challenging trade for lesser-quality rams. The sale recorded a clearance rate of approximately 70%.

Excluding the rams that topped €1,000 per head, there was still a good average price of €542 recorded for rams that sold with prices ranging from €300 to €900. The general run of prices offered for rams that did not sell on the day ranged from €240 to €460 and averaged almost €300 per head.

Female entries

There were seven batches of three ewe hoggets and nine batches of three ewe lambs included in the sale. The standout seller in this section was the first prizewinning pen of ewe hoggets, judged by Kieran Byrne, Co Donegal, which were also awarded overall female champion and sold for €600 each.

The hoggets majored on replacement characteristics with two rated as five star and the other as four star.

The second prizewinning pen of ewe hoggets were from the Speenogue flock and these sold for €320 per head. Six of the seven batches sold on the day to average €339 per head with the remaining batch unsold in the ring at €290 per head.

The entry of 27 ewe lambs averaged over €200 per head with prices ranging from €155 to a top of €270 for the first prizewinning pen and reserve champion.

Performance recording

It is unique for hill sheep to be offered for sale with genetic evaluations and sire verified data, with only a couple of hill sheep societies performance recording. The Donegal Cheviot Pedigree Breeders took a decision in 2019 to progress down this route and this is the second season where sheep have been offered possessing genetic evaluations.

Group chair Seán McHugh noted that there are more customers starting to enquire about Cheviot rams with performance recorded data.

Central to this was breeders utilising sire verified data to avoid a risk of inbreeding while demand for high-quality rams was also evident from customers in the Donegal Cheviot and Cheviot Cross Breeders Group.

McHugh expects this trend to continue to grow in light of the requirement in the impending Sheep Improvement Scheme for participants to purchase genotyped rams over the duration of the scheme.