NSA Wales & Border Early Sale
Date: 7th August 2023
Time: 10am
Location: Royal Welsh Showground, Builth, LD2 3SY
Buzz at NSA Wales & Border Early Ram Sale
A top price of 3,800 guineas with good averages reflected a solid trade with a premium for the best tups at the NSA Wales & Border Ram Sales Early Sale yesterday (Monday 7th August 2023).
Held at the Royal Welsh Showground, the Early Sale is traditionally a trailblazer for the season. It didn’t fail to set the standard and satisfied both vendors and buyers.
The highest price went to a February born Charollais shearling, sold to Hywel and Avril Rees, from Charles Marwood, CW Marwood & Son (pictured). Charles was delighted and pleased with the overall run of prices.
He said: “It’s a much better sale than last year, the whole tone is different. The shearling was by our senior stock ram, Lowerye Vulcan. He is very well balanced and was indexed in the top 2/3% of the breed and was the second prize performance recorded ram in the show. We have retained his twin brother as a stock ram.”
Buyer Hywel Rees said his purchase would be going on his pedigree Llynfi flock of 68 Charollais ewes. He also runs a commercial flock of 300 ewes at Somerset Farm in the Vale of Glamorgan.
He said: “It has good muscling and is well fleshed, with good bone, good on its feet and a good all rounder.”
A Charollais shearling from NSA Wales & Border Ram Sale committee Gareth Jones’s Roblestone Flock, Camrose, Pembrokeshire, made 2,000 guineas. The ram was a good strong shearling, third in his class in the Royal Welsh this year, where a few people had spotted him. Gareth also had a good average and praised the sale, especially for the early lambing producers.
Arwyn and Jane Davies’s Charollais breed champion sold for 1100 guineas, a December born shearling. The Arbryn ram sold to RJ and J Towers, Ingleton, Yorkshire.
The sale continues a good year for the Arbryn flock of 60 pedigree ewes, which also took the Interbreed group of three title at the Royal Welsh Show.
Tim Prichard sold the highest priced Beltex cross ram at 1020 guineas. Adrian Davies sold three Beltex cross shearlings at 1,000 guineas and one at 900 guineas.
The champion Texel was from the Chave family’s Peacehay Flock, Somerset. The shearling made 900 guineas with their pen topping at 1,000 guineas.
Paul Quick was pleased with his run of a dozen Loosebeare rams. His yearling ram made the Texel breed top price of 1150 guineas, with his ‘good back end, plenty of width and a good level top’. It went to Lewis Rea of Hay on Wye, who has just started his flock.
The Quick family had an average of 800 guineas and have been selling at the NSA Wales & Border Ram Sales for many years. Paul also bought a ram and said the appeal of the early sale is that it gives people the opportunity to buy from more than one breed, with ease of parking.
Paul said: “It was a good sale, but quite selective. Anything with a bit more quality and there was definitely a premium. It was a better sale than last year.”
The Suffolk sale was topped at 750 guineas with a shearling ram from BG & RV & BH Jones, Gower.
The organisers were delighted with the day’s trading. Chairman Graham Jones said: “There was a nice atmosphere but with fairly selective trade. The best sheep were selling well and there was quite a good bottom in the market. There was some money flying about for the best rams. The cross bred rams had a buoyant trade.”
