 |
 |
www.beltex.co.uk
Beltex Sheep SocietyShepherds View,
|
Carlisle Eleventh Annual Society Show & Sale
|
||||
+44 (0)17683 41124
 |
| Glenkeen El Dorado - 10500gns |
But the February 2001 born Glenkeen El Dorado entered the record books for current Northern Ireland Sheep Farmer of the Year Fergus Harbinson, of Limavady, Co Londonderry, who also bred and exhibited the show and sale’s female and reserve supreme champion selected by judge Tudur Wyn Jones, of Ruthin, Clwyd, the shearling ewe, Glenkeen Ellisa which sold for the joint top female price of 2,000gns.
The sale averaged £754.34 for the 237 shearling rams sold an increase of £164 on the previous 2000 sale average for 226 shearlings sold. Averages for both aged and lamb rams also increased markedly. Trade was underpinned by a strong demand from both pedigree and commercial buyers, many of the latter willing to pay up to 1,000gns for their stock rams.
The ringside was packed virtually for the duration of the sale which began at 10am and finished at 8pm. The interest in the catalogue which amounted to almost 600 lots, 400-plus of them rams, was highlighted by the fact that sale catalogues were all snapped up immediately before the sale began.
Mr Harbinson’s top priced ram and ewe were both by the same imported sire, named Hutch, bought from Gavin Shanks and Alan Thom, of Bonington, Kilmarnock, at the last Beltex society sale in Carlisle two years ago for 5,000gns, by Mr Harbinson and the Irish Beltex Breeders Club secretary Colin Barnes.
"Hutch had the length and the power and he has passed this on to his progeny, including this shearling ram and shearling ewe," said Fergus, former chairman of the Irish Beltex Sheepbreeders Club.
The top priced ram was out of a home-bred 1996-born ewe Glenkeen Vanity which was by the flock’s first ram, Ronus, an imported sire bought in 1993. The flock now numbers 50 ewes and 30 shearling ewes.
"I first bought Beltex because of its quality and conformation and I have never looked back since. Using the Beltex as a terminal sire on my commercial ewes I am getting a high percentage of E and U grade carcases," said Fergus.
 |
| Brickrow Dazzle - 8000gns |
The second highest priced Beltex was another home-bred ram this time a two shear from John Cowan, of Auchincruive, Ayr, which sold early on in the sale for 8,000gns to pedigree and commercial sheep breeder and showman Richard Colegrave, of Guards Well, Abernyte, Inchture, Perth.
Mr Colegrave had spotted Brickrow Dazzle at the Royal Highland Show where it won the supreme championship. He has since bought Dazzle’s full brother privately and was keen to purchase the championship winner for his pedigree ewes and 450 ewe commercial sheep flock which is an amalgam of Dutch Texel, Texel and Beltex crosses.
The two shear is a grandson of Viagrow. His sire Corstane Coulter, bought from Mary Dunlop at Carlisle in 1999, was taken in the foot and mouth cull last year when it was on the farm of joint owner Ian McMillan at Newton Stewart. The ram is out of a home-bred ewe, Brickrow Veronica from John Cowan’s small 20 ewe flock which he founded ten years ago.
John Cowan also sold a shearling ram by Corstane Coulter for 2,800gns. Brickrow Ego took a third prize ticket at the Royal Highland Show this year and was bought by Messrs Smith and Evans, of Welshpool.
Mr Colegrave, who received a grounding in producing commercial sheep from his father who was a farmer-grader at Banbury Market after the Second World War, has enjoyed great success at primestock events with his carcase sheep, including Royal Smithfield, the National Festival of Meat and the Scottish Winter Fair. He intends to use the ram on his pedigree and commercial flock as well as collecting semen from him.
Also selling at 2,200gns to Mr Colegrave was Fearn Eclipse from J Scott and Partners, of Fearn Farm, Tain, Ross-shire.
It was a poignant moment for well-known Lanarkshire breeder Mary Dunlop, of Biggar when she took the Broughton flock shearling through the ring for the sale’s third top price of 3,500gns to PG Slater, Whiteley Hay Farm, Butley, Cheshire.
The ram was one of a consignment of nine rams which had been entered for Springbox Management company’s Broughton flock by her partner Dave Stanley, who died suddenly before the Carlisle sale.
Another of the Springbox shearling ram consignment made 2,000gns to M Bindloss, Shap Abbey, Shap, Penrith, Cumbria.
Mrs Dunlop’s own entry of nine rams from her Corstane flock made a top price of 2,200gns for the ET twin Corstane Ebro.
Another shearling ram made the fourth top price of the sale of 3,000gns for Graham Burke, of Easter Balad Farm Cottage, Kinross. His ram Pentland Elite sired by The Rustler is a scrapie genotype 1 sire which sold to pedigree breeder John Barclay, of Brockloch, Maybole, Ayrshire.
Wade McCrabbe, of Ardstewart, Gortaquigley, Raphoe, Co Donegal, sold the full brother to Ardstewart Charles, the Carlisle 2000 champion and the then top priced Beltex at 7,000gns, for 2,600gns to Brian Atkinson, of Scratchmere Scar, Plumpton, Penrith.
At 2,500gns was an imported shearling ram from Gavin Shanks, of Bowmanhurst Farm, Brownlee Estate, Carluke, Lanark which sold to S Whiteford, St Johns Kirk, Symington, Biggar.
Another shearling ram sired by the scrapie genotype 1 sire The Rustler brought 2,200gns for Allan Jackson, of Covington Mill Farm, Thankerton, Biggar, with Headlind Eskimo. The ram sold to BT Breaks, New Laithe Farm, Newtown-in-Bowland, Clitheroe, Lancashire.
A further three shearling rams sold for 2,000gns: J & G Belcher and Sons, Lilliehurst Farm, Sherriffhales, Shifnal, Shropshire to D Gray, Wrangham Farm, Lowick, Berwick-on-Tweed; A Lecky, Garvetargh Road, Castlederg, to PG Slater, Whiteley Hay Faram, Butley, Cheshire; Shanks and Thom, Bowmanhurst, Brownlee Estate to JE Jackson, Rosemount, Papcastle, Cockermouth, Cumbria.
In the female section, the joint top price of 2,000gns was shared by Nick Frazier and his father John of Coningswick Farm, Rock, near Kidderminster, selling to John McGarva, of Horseclose Farm, Cummertrees, Annan, Dumfriesshire.
Coningswick Evelyn, by Headlind Dynamic, the record ram lamb price at the 2000 Carlisle sale for 2,700gns, was reserve champion at this year’s Royal Welsh Show.
The second top price of 1,700gns went to another shearling bred by Fergus Harbinson, again by his ram Hutch, which had stood second in her class to the female champion. Purchaser of both of Mr Harbinsons’s top females was J Smithson, Skelcies Hall, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.
At 1,550gns was a home-bred August 2001 born ewe from partners Gordon Connor and Scott Dalrymple, from Boness, West Lothian, by an imported sire which was female champion at the Great Yorkshire Show.
Another of the imported sire’s daughters hit 1,200gns for the pair in the consignment of eight females from their Dun-Mor hobby flock of 20 ewes in their best sale yet.
Averages: 15 aged rams, £1,367.43 (2000 sale - £727.13 for 8 sold); 237 shearling rams (2000 sale - £589.77 for 226 sold); 31 lamb rams, £487.06 (2000 sale - £408.37 for 79 sold); 107 shearling gimmers, £419.24 (2000 sale - £403.25 for 89 sold).
| © Beltex Sheep Society. All Rights Reserved. |
Custom Search
|
 |