The provisional catalogue has been released for Sheep Ireland’s elite €uro-Star multi-breed ram sale.

The sale, which takes place on Saturday 28 August in Cillin Hill Mart, Kilkenny, is Ireland’s largest ram sale, with 427 rams currently entered. The catalogue can be found here.

Interested parties should note that lot numbers are not visible in the provisional catalogue as animals and lot numbers may be subject to change before the final catalogue is confirmed and generated on Tuesday 24 August.

Breed selection

The sale offers rams from 10 different breeds. The largest entry at present is Texel rams, with 158 entered in the provisional catalogue.

This is followed closely by Charollais, with 132 rams, while Suffolk are next up with 58 rams.

There are 37 Belclare rams, 16 Vendéen, nine of each Hampshire Down and Lleyn, eight Rouge de l’Ouest, three Border Leicester and one Beltex.

Sheep Ireland explains that every ram in the sale is DNA-verified to its sire while each ram in the sale is in the top 20% of the breed based on a genetic evaluation.

All rams are physically inspected on the morning of the sale, while breeders must also have collected a substantial amount of data on their flock in the last year.