Record Price at NSA Wales & Border Main Sale
20th September 2016
A record price of 18,000 guineas for a Texel meant smiles all round at a brisk NSA Wales & Border Sale, held at the Royal Welsh Showground on Monday 19 September.
A record price of 18,000 guineas for a Texel meant smiles all round at a brisk NSA Wales & Border Ram Sale, held at the Royal Welsh Showground.
Turnover was up on last year at £2.2 million, with 85% of sheep forward sold. The average prices paid held up or increased across the breeds.
The 18,000 guineas eclipsed the previous 17,000 guinea price for a Blue Faced Leicester in 2008. The price was also well ahead of other headline prices: 7,800 guineas for a Blue Faced Leicester, 5,500 guineas for another Texel, 5, 200 guineas for a Welsh Mountain ram, 3,400 guineas for a Blue Faced Leicester and 4,400 guineas for another Blue Faced Leicester.
Chairman John Owen said: “Generally there was a very good show of rams. People were prepared to pay for good quality rams. The majority of the averages were up on last year.
“Everyone seemed in a good frame of mind. The sheep trade has been good this summer, which reflected in the overall prices and improved clearance rate.”
The shearling, sold by Llion Jones of Pant, Llanegryn, Tywyn, was sold to Charlie Boden of Stockport. Llion had bought Pant Wolf’s mother, a Sportsman ewe, for 2,800 guineas in Carlisle from Charlie Boden in 2011 after beginning his flock with foundation stock bought at the NSA Wales & Border sale in 2001.
He said the ram had good bone, top line and power. There weren’t many of his quality around.
Llion Jones added: “I had thought of bringing him here to the Royal Welsh but feared he might not be good enough. He only came third in the Texel championship here!”
Llion who is married to the Royal Welsh Lady Ambassador 2016, Catrin Lisa Jones, is the grandson of the late Richard ap Simon Jones. He also breeds commercial ewes and the Welsh Black Ysguboriau Herd – the other three rams at the sale made 1100, 850 and 600 guineas each.
NSA Wales & Border Sales Committee member, David Powell, said it had been a buoyant sale: “The vendors would be quite happy I’d have thought. It’s been a good trade.
“I bought a Border Leicester ram for £680, about £150 more than I had thought to pay, but I am pleased with him.
“It’s been a good sale all around. Sheep have sold well – which meant the rings have finished early and that’s led to a few queues, but that’s life.”
A Blue Faced Leicester ram lamb bred by M & N Gray of Low Espley, Morpeth, Northumberland, went to G Smith & Sons, Alnwick, Northumberland, for 7,800 guineas. A Texel sold by Danny Creer, from the Isle of Man, was bought by Barbara Smith, Slapton, for 5,500 guineas.
It was a good day for the Davies family. Stuart Davies of Jay Farms, Bucknell, sold a Talybont Welsh Mountain yearling, for 5,200 guineas.
He is only in his second year of breeding Welsh rams, having previously bred Suffolks. He has 100 Welsh ewes and 900 cross bred ewes, as well as 150 suckler cattle.
The buyer was his brother Rob Davies, RWAS Director Sheep, who farms at Ty Canol, Llangynidr.
He said: It’s a very good line and I still have his grandfather and I need to maintain that line. It’s an outstandingly good line and the ram is very correct.”
Another high priced Texel was sold by father and daughter, Jim and Nicola Hartwright, of Stanford Bishop, Worcestershire, for 4,400 guineas. They brought 100 rams to the sale, which they regard as their ‘Harvest Day’, selling only a few other tups privately and in a few pedigree sales.
Vendors travelled from as far as the Orkneys and the Isle of Man, with Dutch buyer Harry deVliegher making a 48 hour trip to buy Arwyn Thomas’s Charollais ram lamb, this year’s Royal Welsh winner, for 1700 guineas. Harry, who was accompanied by his father, Cor, has been making the trip for eight years and ‘thoroughly enjoys’ the sale.
