The sheep entries at this year’s Tullamore Show have surpassed all expectations by blowing record entries from other years out of the water.

If you are attending this year’s show you can expect to witness almost 920 sheep being shown across 20 breeds. These breeds include Texel, Vendéen, Suffolk, Charollais, Rough de l’Ouest, Galway, Beltex, Jacob, Belclare, Welsh Llyen, Zwartables, Border Leicester, Bluefaced Leicester, Dutch Spotted, Blue Texel, Badger Faced Texel (Dassenkop) and Commercial sheep.

This year, there are two new breeds taking part in the sheep showing competitions, namely Lanark and Swaledale.

A landslide of entries have been submitted for both of these sections with over 70 Swaledales and 200 Lanarks set to take part in the day’s events.

Judging in the sheep section will commence at 11am. \ Donal O'Leary

The Lanark showing section is the largest of all breeds in the sheep section with 200 sheep competing for only six red rosettes on the day. Other breeds that are expected to have large entries include Welsh Llyen and Texel.

Judging

  • 11am: judging for the Zwartables, Charollais, Rouge de l’Ouest, Beltex, Galway and Lanark.
  • 12pm: judging for the Texel, Welsh Llyen and Suffolk.
  • 12.30pm: judging for the Blue Faced Leicester and Dutch Spotted.
  • 1pm: judging for the Border Leicester.
  • 1.30pm: judging for Vendéen and the any other breed section.
  • 2pm: judging for the Swaledale and young handlers classes.
  • 2.30pm: judging for Commercial sheep and Blue Texel.
  • 3pm: judging for Jacob.
  • 3.30pm: judging for the Dassenkop (Badger Faced Texel).

    • The recent rise in the popularity of coloured sheep such as the Dutch Spotted, Blue Texel and Badger Faced Texel will likely leave the ringside jam-packed at this year’s show.

    The Dutch Spotted and Blue Texel section will see classes for ewe lambs, shearling ewes, ram labs and shearling rams while the Badger Face Texel will have just two classes open to males of any age and females of any age.