A good crowd with many new and familiar faces were in attendance at the sale in Ballymena this year. A consistent trade was seen through the sale attracting bids from fellow breeders and commercial buyers. It was the pre-sale show class winners which came out on top in all sections at this years sale!

The aged ewes started the sale with a pen of two years old ewes topping the section from J & C Kennedy selling for £270/head to WP & EN Kerr, Co. Tyrone with another strong pen of three year olds from the same home being knocked down to N Mcilroy, Co. Londenderry for £265/head.

Topping the Shealing Ewe trade was the 1^st prize pen of Shearling Ewes from A Bothwell, selling away for £350/head to Avonlea Farm, Co Londonderry. Mr Bothwell had a tremendous run of females, selling another pen for £315/head to Alan Forbes, Co. Fermanagh. The 2^nd prize winning pen of Shearlings from C Quigley were knocked down to fellow breeder David Mason for £320/head with the 3^rd place pen from A McConville selling away at £360/head to A Fitzsimons.  

From the pre-sale show the individual shearling ewes also had a successful sale with the winning gimmer from David Mason catching the eye of fellow breeder in Ireland, Pat Bobbett who’s securing bid of £360 saw him successful in taking her home. J Dillon was successful in purchasing the 2^nd prize winning shearling ewe selling again for £360 from A McConville.

Individual Ewe lambs were sought after with a top price of £405 coming from A Bothwell with his winning ewe lamb in the pre-sale show. This girl was snapped up by William Oliver, Co. Louth who also purchased the 3^rd prize ewe lamb from J & C Kennedy for £205. A McConville sold his single ewe lamb for £280 to fellow breeder Alan McDonald, Co Offaly. The prize-winning pens of ewe lambs all reached £200 plus with A McConville securing the highest priced pen of the day to J & S Gawn for £205/head.

All in all a successful day selling the females seeing good clearance rates and consistent averages.  There were 14 pens of Shearling ewes hitting the £290 plus mark, with Ewe lambs seeing a steadier trade with 10 pens reaching over the £180 mark with smaller growing lambs seeing a steadier trade.

The rams saw a consistent trade compared to last year’s record breaking sale with many buyers activley looking for rams to suit both pedigree breeding and commercial flocks.  The 1^st prize ram from J & C Kennedy, Mileview Official (01618/2504138) sired by a homebred ram, sold for 2800gns to Irish breeder Alan McDonald. The Kennedy family had another successful sale with Mileview Omega (01618/2504211) sired by the same homebred sire, he was snapped up by Ian Barr for 2700gns, and Mileview Oliver (01618/2504122) who sold for 2400gns selling to the pre-sale show judge F Leonard. The 2^nd prize ram from G Calwell, Ballymena Daisylane Optimum (02449/2500927) was again purchased by the judge F Leonard for 1800gns.

Many quality rams sold between 600 – 900gns with 12 rams securing bids of over 1000gns with a 90% clearance of the rams forward on the day of the sale.

Averages

Aged Ewes to £270 av. £217

Shearling Ewes to £350 (£360) av. £267

Ewe Lambs to £205 (£405) av. £162

Rams to 2800gns av. £1031

Top Prices

Aged Ewes

C & A Kennedy £270

J & C Kennedy £265

A F Cunningham £190

 Shearling Ewes

A Bothwell £350, £315, £305, £300 x2 £295

A McConville £340, £295

C Quigley £320, £290

R Manson £315

C & A Kennedy £305, £300

 Shearling Ewes (Individual)

D Mason £360

A McConville £360

A Bothwell £350

Ewe Lambs

A McConville £205

A Bothwell £205, £200

D Mason £200, £185

J & C Kennedy £200

B & E Latimer £188

Ewe Lambs (Individual)

A Bothwell £405

A McConville £280

J & C Kennedy £205

Rams

J & C Kennedy 2800gns, 2700gns, 1350gns, 1300gns

C & A Kennedy 2400gns, 1700gns, 1100gns

G Calwell 1800gns, 950gns x2

A McConville 1500gns, 1400gns, 1050gns

A Bothwell 1100gns, 950gns

Aidan McConville Lot 106 £1050

B & E Latimer 950gns

A F Cunningham 950gns

Pre-Sale Show

Judge: Fergal Leonard, Co Westmeath

Kindly sponsored by Fane Valley

Shearling Ram

1^st              Jayne & Catherine Kennedy (133)

2^nd          George Calwell (119)

3^rd           Aubrey & Wendy Bothwell (126)

4^th           Charles & Andrew Kennedy (114)

Pen of 5 Shearling Ewes

1^st           Aubrey & Wendy Bothwell (8)

2^nd           Charles Quigley (52)

3^rd           A. McConville (42)

4^th           Charles & Andrew Kennedy (21)

Pen of 5 Ewe Lambs

1^st           David Mason (63)

2^nd          A. McConville (85)

3^rd         Jayne & Catherine Kennedy (77)

4^th          James Coulter (89)

Individual Shearling Ewe

1^st           David Mason (25A)

2^nd          Aidan McConville (42A)

3^rd          Barry & Elaine Latimer( 14A)

4^th          Aubrey & Wendy Bothwell (8A)

Individual Ewe Lamb

1^st            Aubrey & Wendy Bothwell (98A)

2^nd          Charles Quigley (69A)

3^rd          Jayne & Catherine Kennedy (77A)

4^th          Aidan McConville (85A)