A busy ringside gathered for the annual Welshpool Sale of Lleyn sheep, where prices for shearling ewes reached a top of £348 per head for the pre-sale show pen of 5 winners from E & D Jones, Lluest Wen, Comins Coch. Managing to secure these girls was A & B Vaughan, Llys-yr-awel.

Moments later, E & D Jones were back in the money with their second pen of 5 shearling ewes being knocked down at £320 per head to A Rees, Carmarthenshire.

WJ & DJ Williams, Bodtacho Ddu, Gwynedd sold his second prize pen of 5 shearling ewes for £285 per head. These girls were sold again to A Rees.

Two pens of shearling ewes were then sold for £270 per head, the first being a pen of 5 from M & S Etherton, Holton Mill House, Oxford. Their pen was purchased by NE & SJ Lewis, Court Farm, Warwickshire.

The second pen making £270 per head came from Twose Farms Ltd, Maenhir, Carmarthenshire. This pen of 6 shearling ewes was bought by J E Isaac, Powys.

Ewe lambs topped at £170 per head for the third prize pen of 5 from W Davies, Bronallt Gwynedd. They were snapped up by T L Hughes, Llandrindod Wells.

Next best at £165 per head was the second prize pen of 5 ewe lambs from I & A Jones, Pen Y Bryn, Conwy. They were sold to C G Bonner & Son, Milton Keynes.

P Knowles, Cragg Farm, Kendal secured a top of £160 per head for a pen of 12 ewe lambs, which were purchased by T L Hughes, whilst Twose Farms Ltd matched that bid with his pen of 7 selling to C Mullard-Davies, Shropshire.

Two pens of ewe lambs from WJ & DJ Williams also secured £160 per head, with a pen of 5 heading home with C Mullard-Davies and a pen of 9 being bought by G Pryderi, Ceredigion.

Rams were a steady trade throughout, with top price being 1800gns for the pre-sale show first prize shearling from E & D Jones. The Lluest ram (00599/2415671) is sired by Whitlaw Landmark (00983/2218748), out of a home-bred ewe and was snapped up by M J Wells, One Ash Grange, Bakewell.

Next in the trade stakes at 1700gns was the first ram in the ring from G & A Fort, Brighton House Farm, West Yorkshire. Their pen leader, Brightonhouse Novak (01299/2427571), stood third in the pre-sale show and is sired by (01158/1906836). He was sold to C P Jenkins, Aberystwyth.

Another from the same home, Brightonhouse Neo (01656/2429228), sold for 1600gns to R Jones, Bronallt, Angelsey. This boy is a son of stock ram (01207/1904982).

The second prize ram in the pre-sale show, Cragg Nail (00886/2408806) from P Knowles secured a top bid of 1300gns. Sired by a home-bred ram (00886/1603084), Nail was knocked down to Farmstock Genetics, Over Whitlaw Farm, Selkirk.

Matching that 1300gns price tag was Borrins Nectar (01228/2425924) from J H Dugdale, Borrins Farm, Settle. Sired by (00983/1712174) and out of a home-bred ewe, he was purchased by J E John & Sons, Blaencrymlyn Farm, Bridgend.

A final 1300gns bid came for a Tacho ram (00350/2409106) from WJ & DJ Williams. A son of stock ram (01228/2120314), he caught the attention of buyer T T Jones & Co, Powys.

Averages

Shearling ewes to £348 av. £231.88 (-£11.03)

Ewe lambs to £170 av. £150.75 (£1.34)

Rams to 1800gns av. 828gns (-178gns)

Leading Prices

Shearling Ewes

E & D Jones, £348

E & D Jones, £320

WJ & DJ Williams, £285

M & S Etherton, £270

Twose Farms Ltd, £270

JA & R Geldard & Sons, £260

JA & R Geldard & Sons, £260

H & M Dugdale, £255

M & S Etherton, £250

WJ & DJ Williams, £250

Ewe Lambs

W Davies, £170

I & A Jones, £165

P Knowles, £160

WJ & DJ Williams, £160

WJ & DJ Williams, £160

Twose Farms Ltd, £160

W Davies, £155

D & B Vaughan, £155

S Greig, £155

Rams

E & D Jones, 1800gns

G & A Fort, 1700gns

G & A Fort, 1600gns

P Knowles, 1300gns

J H Dugdale, 1300gns

WJ & DJ Williams, 1300gns

E & D Jones, 1250gns

J H Dugdale, 1200gns

H & M Dugdale, 1200gns

Show Results

Male judge: James Dugdale

Female judge: John Dugdale

Shearling Ram

1^st – D & E Jones

2^nd – P Knowles

3^rd – G & A Fort

Pen of 5 shearling ewes

1^st – D & E Jones

2^nd – WJ & DJ Williams

3^rd – JA & R Geldard & Sons

Pen of 5 ewe lambs

1^st – Twose Farming Ltd

2^nd – I & A Jones

3^rd – W Davies