All roads lead to Carnaross Mart next Friday, 29 December, for the North East Irish Texel Club’s twilight in-lamb sale. The sale is set to kick off at 6pm, with viewing from 4pm. A total of 50 in-lamb, pedigree-registered, Texel hoggets will be on offer – as well as a pedigree-registered Texel ewe lamb being sold for charity.

This annual sale will again include ewes with pedigrees containing the top genetics of the Texel breed both in Ireland and the UK. Some of the top-performing sheep at both shows and sales in the past year came from flocks that are exhibiting here.

A feature of the sale this year will be that all animals entered will have been fully €uro-Star-evaluated with Sheep Ireland. All animals have €uro-Star evaluations displayed in the catalogue.

A large selection of the females have €uro-Star evaluations that equal or exceed the threshold for the new Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS). Likewise, 90% of the service sires used on these ewes have exceeded the €uro-Star threshold for the SIS. All service sires are DNA-sampled and genotyped, so that all offspring from the sale ewes can be sire-verified.

Commenting on the sale of a pedigree-registered Texel ewe lamb for charity, James Dunne of the North East Irish Texel Club said: “All proceeds from the sale of a ewe lamb will be donated to SOSAD Ireland, kindly donated by Patrick and Pearse Leonard (Glassdrummond Texels). This ewe lamb is an embryo daughter of Teiglum Errol, out of a Hillview ewe, going back to Proctors Cocktail.”The sale is being held in association with Carnaross Mart. Online bidding is available through the Carnaross LSL app, alongside ringside bidding. Potential online bidders must register prior to the commencement of the sale by contacting Carnaross Mart.

A February 2022-born daughter of Loosebeare Chief from the Kilduff flock. \ McGregor Photography