A busy ringside gathered for the annual Welshpool Sale of Lleyn sheep, seeing strong priced across all ages of females seeing an 88% clearance up nearly 10% from last year’s sale. Buyers had travelled from across Wales and England to secure quality Lleyn females and rams. A tremendous trade was seen with a change of auctioneer for the rams with a 90% clearance and bidding still strong until the last lot of the day.  

Starting the sale with their annual consignment of non-MV Lleyn Shearling ewes was RO Rees, Dolybent, who set the trade selling their first pen at £275/head. Onto the MV section and aged ewes from J & H Williams saw a buoyant trade reaching £190/head for a pen of four year old ewes, selling to A Davies, Machynlleth.

The top priced pen of Shearling ewes reached £345/head for 5 from E & D Jones, Lluest Wen and finding a new home with fellow breeders from Devon R J Irwin who also purchased their 3^rd prize winning pen at £340/head and another pen from WJ & DJ Williams at £335/head. The first prize pen in the pre-sale show from DJ & GA Watkins, Hereford reached £300/head and sold to R Griffiths, Corwen. Their run looked like peas in a pod and were all sold at the same money to various buyers. The demand for Shearlings was strong throughout the sale with the quality on offer being second to none. Vendors were rewarded with 19 pens reaching £300/head or more and seeing the average rise £58/head compared to the previous year.

The first of the ewe lambs into the ring from P Hale reached £200/head and were knocked down to G Wesley, Newtown who purchased many pens from other vendors at the same money. Topping the trade was a pen of 5 from WJ & DJ Williams souring to a price of £230/head and after some fierce bidding were sold to Sion Roberts, Angelsey. Many vendors sold pens over £190/head with the 2^nd prize pen of 5 young lambs from IO & A Jones sold away at £190/head. Smaller running lambs saw plenty of demand, with many pens changing hands at no less than £175.

Onto the rams and a change in auctioneer did not disrupt the sale or amount of spectators around the ring.

It was the prize-winning stock that came into the spotlight, with top price of the day coming from the first prize Shearling Ram from JA & R Geldard. Their Wray Castle ram (00621/2528090) sired by a homebred ram was knocked down to the pre-sale show judges Bethan & Aneirin Vaughan at 2900gns. The third prize ram from G & A Fort Brightonhouse Opulent (01299/2529797) sired by Lluest ram (00599/2011824) who also bred the families Champion ram at the Society’s sale in Ruthin reached 2600gns and was purchased by breeders RJ Irwin from Devon to join the Logic flock. The 2^nd prize winning ram from E & D Jones (00599/2516558) sired by Whitlaw Landmark selling to JE John & Sons, Bridgend.

Strong Rams for both pedigree and commercial breeding saw a good trade throughout with prices remaining strong throughout the sales achieving a 90% clearance. A total of 16 rams exceeded 1000gns and many of the rams sold saw a strong trade between 600 - 950gns with a handful selling for less than 500gns.

 

Averages

Senior ewes to £190 av. £177.50

Shearling ewes to £345 av. £289

Ewe Lambs to £230 av. £190

Rams to 2900gns av. £945

Top Prices

Aged Ewes

J & H Williams £190, £175

Shearling Ewes

E & D Jones - £345, £340

WJ & DJ Williams - £335, £325

Harpers Holdings Ltd £320, £305

A W Davies - £310, £300 x2

JA & R Geldard - £310

JH Dugdale £310, £300

Twose Farms Ltd - £310

DJ & GA Watkins - £300 x3

H & M Dugdale - £300 x3

J & H Williams - £300, £290

S Greig - £290

Ewe Lambs

WJ & DJ Williams - £230, £200, £190

KE Griffiths & R Harrison - £205

P Hale - £200 x2

P Knowles - £200, £195

Manor Farm East Marden - £190

AW Davies - £190

I & A Jones - £190

Rams

JA & R Geldard & Sons - 2900gns, 1300gns x2, 1100gns x3

G & A Fort - 2600gns, 1100gns

E & D Jones - 1900gns, 1300gns, 1000gns

T & B Fort - 1300gns, 950gns

AW Davies 1250gns

P Knowles - 1200gns, 1100gns, 900gns

DN Bennett & Son - 1100gns

I & A Jones - 950gns

 

Pre-Sale Show

Judges: Bethan & Aneirin Vaughan

Pen of 5 Shearling Ewes

1st - DJ & GA Watkins

2nd - Harpers Holdings Ltd

3rd - E & D Jones

Pen of 5 Ewe Lambs

1st - Twose Farms Ltd

2nd - IO & A Jones

3rd - JA & R Geldard & Sons

Shearling Ram

1st - JA & R Geldard & Sons (114)

2nd - E & D Jones (137)

3rd - G & A Fort (118)