Despite the severe summer drought across the West Country, demand for breeding replacements remained strong, confidence in the Lleyn breed remained evident throughout the day, with buyers keen to secure quality breeding replacements. The sheep on offer at the sale had stood up to the dry summer impressively, showing no real impact from the lack of grass and ready to go on in their new homes which had seen a welcome shower of rain that morning.

The sale began with a couple of pens of aged ewes from R H Turner and Cathy Evans who were reducing their flock numbers. The top price in this section of £265/head for R H Turners 2yr old ewes, securing a new home in Somerset with M Dyer.

The shearling ewes started strongly with the first lot into the ring from E & D Jones reaching £350/head selling to Wolf Partnership in Devon who also secured their next pen at £325/head. AG Selway from Stalbridge was next into the ring with his Champion pen of 5 females which topped the trade of the day securing £365/head and travelling to a new home with T Hall in Devon. The 2^nd prize winners in the pre-sale show came from P & S Eckett and secured £335/head, and the 3^rd prize winners from WJ & DJ Williams in Gwynedd secured £325/head.

There were tremendous runs of sheep on offer from all vendors, meaning buyers were completing for the sheep on offer at the sale. Over 30 pens in excess of the £300/head at this years sale all of our vendors saw a tremendous trade for their sheep and saw the average rise to £60/head compared to the previous year.  

The three prize winning individual shearling ewes saw AW Davies, Pwllheli obtain a bid of £350 for his 1^st prize ewe.  Twose Farms Ltd, sold their 2^nd prize ewe for £330 and E & D Jones, Powys sold their third prize ewe for £320, with all individual ewes finding new homes across the Southwest.

Ewe lambs saw a mixed trade throughout the day with strong lambs, suitable for tupping reaching strong prices with the top price pen of the day coming from Towse Farms Ltd at £255/head selling to GR & RJ Ward, Winkleigh with their second prize pen of ewe lambs reaching £245/head. Bigger lambs were in demand with 10 pens reaching over £200/head including the 1^st prize show winners from D & S Searle reaching £230/head and WJ & DJ Williams’ 3^rd prize winners reaching £250 all travelling to new homes in Cornwall. Smaller running lambs were also sought after with many pens reaching£160/head despite the lack of grass in the surrounding areas.

There was 100% clearance in the female section of the sale this year with averages exceeding expectations, reinforcing the Lleyn ewe place in many commercial farming systems.

Rams saw plenty of demand with 41 forward and 36 sold.  Very few were under 400gns with those best rams easily making 700gns plus seeing fourteen rams hit exceed 1000gns mark.

JH Dugdale, Settle topped the ram section with Borrins Orion (01228/2526566) sired by Bronallt Ludo for 2000gns to M Dyer, Somerset. The second top price ram of the day came from E & D Jones, Machynlleth (00599/2516520) sired by Whitelaw Landmark for 1800gns to Harper Holding Ltd, Helpworthy. P & S Eckett had a flying trade seeing Lydden Ozzy (02185/2502234) sell for 1500gns to DE Hext & Son, Kingsbridge, and their next best in the pen Lydden Oscar (02185/2502162) selling for 1400gns to Oxbridge Farm, South Gloucestershire.

Averages

Older Ewes to £265, av. £223

Shearling Ewes to £365, av. £306.50

Ewe Lambs to £255, av. £179

Rams to 2000gns, av. £998

 

Top Prices

Aged Ewes

R H Turner - £265 (2yr olds), £255 (3yr olds)

C Evans - £230 (2yr olds)

Shearling Ewes

A G Selway - £365 (Champion females), £318

E & D Jones - £350, £325, £315

P & S Eckett - £335 x2

Harper Holdings Ltd - £330, £315 x2 £310 x3

WJ & DJ Williams - £325, £320

A W Davies - £320, £315

P & J Shipton - £320, £315 x2

Twose Farms Ltd - £315

D & S Searle - £315

R Saunders - £315 x2

R H Turner - £315

A & D Parker - £315

Single Shearling Ewe

A W Davies - £350

Twose Farms Ltd - £330

E & D Jones - £320

Ewe Lambs

Twose Farms Ltd - £255, £245, £200

WJ & DJ Williams - £250, £200

JM & GC Adams - £250

D & S Searle - £230

R H Turner - £212

A W Davies - £205, £200

Shearling Rams

J H Dugdale - (29) 2000gns

E & D Jones – (30) 1800gns, (32) 1250gns

P & S Eckett – (42) 1500gns, (40) 1400gns

H & M Dugdale – (12) 1450gns (Champion)

A W Davies – (19) 1400gns, (21) 1250gns

WJ & DJ Williams – (13,15) 1250gns x2

Twose Farms Ltd – (39) 1100gns, (37) 1050gns, (36) 1000gns

D & S Searle – (9) 1000gns

 

Pre-Sale Show

Judges: Rams – Will Williams, Females – Richard Turner

Aged Ram

1st - Harper Holdings Ltd (4)

Performance Recorded Shearling Ram

1st - Twose Farms Ltd (37)

2nd - Manor Farm East Marden (17)

3rd - Mr P & Mrs S Eckett (42)

West Country Club Shearling Ram

1st - Mr A G Selway (22)

2nd - Mr & Mrs DJ Searle (9)

3rd - Mr P & Mrs S Eckett (40)

Open Shearling Ram

1st - H & M Dugdale & Son (12)

2nd - Twose Farms Ltd (36

3rd - Mr AW Davies (20)

CHAMPION RAM – H & M Dugdale & Son (12)

 

Pen of 5 Ewe Lambs

1st - Mr & Mrs DJ Searle

2nd - Twose Farms Ltd

3rd - WJ & DJ Williams

Pen of 5 Shearling Ewes

1st - Mr A G Selway

2nd - Mr P & Mrs S Eckett

3rd - WJ & DJ Williams

Single Shearling Ewe

1st - Mr AW Davies

2nd - Twose Farms Ltd

3rd - Messrs E & D Jones

CHAMPION FEMALES AG Selway