Galway Sheep are Ireland’s oldest recorded sheep breed, with the Galway Sheep Breeders Association this year celebrating a fantastic milestone of 100 years in existence. The formation of Ireland’s native sheep breed dates back much earlier, but 1922 is the date a group of breeders came together to form an official society and establish a breeding legacy that has thankfully stood the test of time.

Society member Gerry Daly is a reservoir of knowledge on the breed and informs me that some of the traditional flocks can trace their origins and bloodlines back to pre-famine times. He remarks that the association has come through some testing times, having been initially formed during the Irish Civil War and surviving through the Economic War, the Second World War, numerous recessions, a sharp decline in numbers in the 1970s, more recently the coronavirus pandemic and not to forget the current challenge of climate change.

The breed owes some of its origin to the Roscommon breed of sheep and to the age of improvement in Irish agriculture, which took place from approximately 1750 to 1815. The main change in a sheep farming context was the introduction of Leicester type rams from Britain. The introduction of South Down rams is also credited as improving the Roscommon breed. Much of this improvement was centred in Roscommon and is part of the reason the county has such a strong link to sheep farming.

Breed transition

The Galway Sheep breed appears to have grown in numbers in the late 1800s, helped by a friendly rivalry in sheep shows and sales in the west. Gerry explains that the Galway breed benefited from a wider gene pool, with breeds including Leicesters, Merino, Ryelands and South Downs incorporated to varying degrees into the breeding mix. The result was a sheep similar in stature to the Roscommon breed but a type of sheep that had wool of superior quality.

This was a huge factor in the breed rapidly multiplying in numbers, with the returns from wool a major income stream from sheep farming. The typical fleece from a Galway Sheep weighs in the region of 7lb (3.2kg) and Gerry recalls stories of producers in the 1960s selling 100 fleeces and buying a good secondhand tractor or car, or even new vehicles at the height of wool prices.

Targeted support

The policymakers of the day also had a part to play. The first recorded numbers included 600 ewes and 20 rams, adopted following inspection into volume one of the flockbook. There were many initiatives to support the breed’s multiplication, including certain county committees placing high-grade rams with farmers in hill districts or implementing schemes to support breeders to purchase Galway Sheep.

The breed of the time was relatively slow to mature and sales of store lambs took place from August through to October with wethers often carried over and finished on crops or in spring. There were no issues at the time with carcase weight, as sheepmeat was primarily consumed as mutton.

Trials undertaken recorded positive performance, with the average litter size in the region of 1.7 lambs in 1986/ 1987, while the average mature weight was listed as 63kg for 18-month-old ewes, 69kg for 30-month-old ewes and 74kg for 42-month-old ewes. Growth rates also improved, but the breed’s big challenge came in the 1970s and 1980s with introduction of continental breeds such as Suffolk, Texel, Charollais etc.

Flock decline

These breeds were quickly adopted and crossbred with Galway sheep, resulting in a swift decline. This also coincided with a period of less interest in society participation and in 1994, the population of pedigree-registered Galway Sheep had fallen to critical status of around 300 sheep across 10 breeders.

Current breed secretary Tom Murphy explained how great work carried out by the society (led by honorary secretary Tom Sice) and supported by the Department of Agriculture attracted flocks to join that had purebred sheep. This resulted in sheep numbers in the purebred register increasing from 271 ewes across 14 flocks in 1994 to 734 ewes across 38 flocks in 1998.

Support from Teagasc and the inclusion of Galway Sheep on the rare breeds listing and targeted support in schemes such as REPS and GLAS also helped sustain numbers, which currently stand at about 750 ewes across 65 members.

While the breed is over 100 years old, it endeavours to adopt to new technologies and explore new avenues to benefit its members. This includes performance recording and genotyping to underpin performance and avoid inbreeding in a small gene pool.

The formation of the Galway Wool Co-op has also provided breeders with a direct route to market for native high-quality wool. This has significantly improved returns and the group also aims to renew the cultural integrity of Irish sheep wool.

Centenary sale

The Galway Sheep Breeders Association is holding its Centenary Show and Sale in Athenry Mart on Monday 19 September, with the show beginning at 11am and the sale at 1pm. Show and sale classes include hoggets and lambs, with a breeding ewe class also present. Breeders must present five female sheep to be considered for the show, but lesser numbers are allowed for sale.

There will also be individual sales of hoggets and ewe lambs to facilitate expected demand from new breeders. There are 100 females and 26 rams entered and bidding is ringside or through the MartEye online sales platform.

ACRES of potential but worries exist

The impending Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) affords priority entry via Tier 1 for applicants partaking in the Conservation of Rare Breeds. The Galway Sheep breed falls under this banner and society members have fielded a large volume of questions in recent weeks.

On the face of it the placing of the measure, Conservation of Rare Breeds, in Tier 1 is positive as it is generating big interest from farmers looking to gain priority entry. However, the Galway Sheep Breeders Association is cautious in its optimism as there is some doubt that some applicants may use this avenue to gain entry and not commit to the ethos of the Sheep Breeders Association.

The association is keen to inform all parties interested as to what is expected as a member. Each producer must have a minimum of five purebred registered females to be considered eligible for entry to the association. It is expected that these sheep will be bred with a Galway ram.

An annual subscription fee of €50 must be paid to the association while members are required to record data (parentage, birth weights, production data etc) on the Sheep Ireland database which also has an annual subscription fee of €50. A charge of €2 per head will apply to females in a flock bred to a Galway ram and the registration fee for progeny is €6 per ram lamb and €2 per ewe lambs.

For example the cost for a flock with 10 ewes registering three ram lambs and five ewe lambs would be €100 for subscription to the Association and Sheep Ireland, €20 for 10 ewes mated to a Galway ram and €28 for registering progeny or a combined cost of €148 per year.

The payment through ACRES has been diluted compared to previous schemes by the stocking rate equivalent for ewes reducing from 0.15 of a livestock unit (LU) to 0.1LU. At €200/LU under ACRES, it means a flock requires 10 mature sheep to receive a payment of €200.

Head: hornless, back of head between and under the ears covered with short wool and showing a medium bob. Ears of good length and fine texture and free from black / brown spots. Nostrils dark in colour and wide. Ram possesses a bold masculine head of medium size.

Neck: Thick, short and well set.

Shoulders: Well laid, level and wide at top.

Chest: Wide, deep, well forward.

Ribs: Well sprung. Barrell deep, thick, long and with a straight underline.

Back: Long and level, backbone not prominent.

Rump, tail and hind quarters: Rump wide and well-fleshed. Hind quarters deep, full and broad.

Legs, feet, hooves: Medium long, straight, square, well apart, good bone and covered with wool to the knees / hocks. Slight feather on hind legs below hocks permitted but not desired. Hooves black with sound horn.

Belly: Well covered with short thick wool.

Fleece: White, moderately long. Fibre wavy and fine textured. Staple broad, closely set and free from tips. Fleece in general as uniform as possible in fibre texture.

Skin: Light and pink.

Carraige: Gay and alert.