All roads lead to Carnaross Mart on Friday 27th December for the North East Irish Texel Club’s Twilight in-lamb sale. The sale is set to kick off at 6:00pm, with viewing from 4:00pm. A total of 70 in-lamb pedigree registered Texel hoggets will be on offer – as well as a scanned pedigree Texel embryo being sold for charity. The sale is a firm favourite in the Texel calendar with the 2023 sale having a top price of €4500 going to Pat and Barry Farrell from the Oberstown flock.

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 at this sale. Females sold by vendors in this sale have produced offspring which achieved excellent success through the year; prize-winners at the national championships, son’s selling to €15,000 and €5,000 at the National Premier Sale in Blessington, while also having son’s that achieved some of the top prices at the Sheep Ireland sale.

A high percentage of animals entered have been fully €uro-Star-evaluated with Sheep Ireland with some of the highest ranked females in the country included in the sale. All animals shall 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 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. This should ensure the male offspring will be eligible to fulfil the criteria for the SIS scheme in 2025. The sale offers an opportunity to select high performance animals with the bloodlines to deliver success for the purchaser.

Sale of scanned pedigree Texel embryo for charity.

James Dunne of the North East Irish Texel Club said that all proceeds from the sale of this embryo pregnancy will be donated to EMBRACE FARM, a charity directly linked to the farming community. This lot has been kindly donated by Robert J Dunne (Kilduff Texels). Dam of this lot is RDF2100951, Kilduff’s best Loosebeare Chief X 768 daughter. Her full siblings sold for €5,500, €5,000, €4,600 and €4,400. Lot 17 in this year’s sale is a direct daughter with Lot 54 being a full sister. The sire of this embryo is the £30,000 Hilltop Golden Eye who has bred to €18,000 in his first season.

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. Transport can be arranged for online buyers. To see the catalogue or some pictures of what will be on offer, check out the club’s Facebook page “North East Irish Texel Club” or alternatively call James on 0873585284.