A strong show of 128 catalogued lots attracted a large crowd to Ballybofey and Stranorlar Mart for the annual Sliabh Liag Blackface Ram Sale.

There was a strong demand from both breeders and commercial farmers. This was evident in the 85% overall clearance rate achieved. Judge for the day was breeder Billy Fraher who made the long journey from Waterford to Donegal for the occasion.

Ram lambs

Shay and Seamus McGrory with their sale topping ram lamb. / Swarber Photography

Topping the sale was a ram lamb from the pen of Shay McGrory, which sold for €3,100 to Brian Byrne. This powerful lamb was sired by a home-bred Finnmore ram.

The day’s champion was the first-place ram lamb from David Tourish and family. This eye-catching lamb went on to sell for €1,450, the second highest priced ram lamb of the day. He was purchased by Billy Fraher.

The Tourish family had a very successful day, selling their pen of five ram lambs for an impressive average of €1,076.

These lambs were all sired the Tourishs’ Kearney stock ram and all found homes in pedigree flocks.

Seamus Thomas also had a successful day with his pen of ram lambs. They topped at €1,300 and he went on to sell a further eight ram lambs to give him a pen average of €772.

Overall, ram lamb prices remained very consistent throughout the sale and achieved an average price of €475 and an 84% clearance rate.

Shearling rams

It was a ram from Seamus Thomas that stole the show in the Shearling ram section, claiming first in that class and then going on to win the overall Reserve Champion award.

This home-bred ram was also the top-priced Shearling ram at €1,650. Seamus went on to achieve an average of €626 for his pen of eight Shearling rams.

Shearlings had the highest demand throughout the sale, achieving the highest average, €508, and the highest clearance rate of 89%.

Aged rams

A slightly smaller entry of aged rams was top-priced by a 2022-born stock ram from Pauric Dorrian. This Croaghross-bred ram went on to sell for €500.

The second highest priced aged ram came from Seamus Thomas’s pen. This 2020-born Logue ram went on to sell for €420.

Aged rams achieved a slightly lower average price of €360 and a slightly lower average clearance rate of 72% on the day.