| 2018-09-07 |    |
Skipton Jacob Produces Record Breed Price of 4,600gns
The breed record for a Jacob sheep was shattered not once, but twice at a scintillating Northern Area Jacob Sheep Breeders’ 43rd annual show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart. (Sat, Sept 1)
Mrs Price, a former Skipton champion – she also finished overall reserve last year – hit the headlines with her January-born 4-horn ram lamb, Pentrenant Pimms, by the Blackbrook Fire Balls son, Kinloch Franco, acquired two years ago from Scottish breeder Mike Munro, of Ladybank, Fife.
Pictured at the 2018 Skipton Jacob highlight are, from left, Jean Price and her reserve champion and record price 4,600gns ram lamb, show judge, Lesley Partridge, Wyn and Siwan Harries with their 2,700gns supreme champion shearling ewe, and six-year-old daughter Sara.
Out of a Hope Flash Lad bred ewe that stood first prize and reserve male champion at this year’s Royal Welsh Show – Lad was bought as a lamb from fellow Welsh breeders Wyn and Siwan Harries - the record price performer was claimed by a Scottish consortium comprising Gordon Connor and Scott Dalrymple, of the Dun-Mor flock at Bridgend, Linlithgow, West Lothian, and Ewan McMillan, who runs the Luruha flock at Lurg Farm, Fintry, in Lanarkshire.
It was an undoubted high point of a breeding career stretching way back to 1973 for Mrs Price, who has sent 48 ewes to the ram this season.
On a day when record prices were seen in both the male and female sections, a new breed record of 2,700gns had been set just an hour earlier for the first prize shearling ewe and supreme champion from Wyn and Siwan Harries’ Hope flock, based at Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire.
Their January, 2017, 4-horn was by Pike Field Braveheart, bred by Kevin Gaskell in Horwich, and claimed in a straight swap two years ago with the Harries family’s Royal Welsh champion, though the ram will soon be returning for another try on the Hope flock. The Skipton title winner also found a new home north of the border with Helen Baillie, of Carluke in South Lanarkshire.
It was the first time the Hope flock had shown sheep at Skipton, though Mr Harries has regularly been on duty there as an inspector. They, too, have enjoyed a successful year in the Jacob show arena, sending out the champion and reserve at both the Royal Welsh and Highland Shows this year, standing reserve champion at St Boswells and winning at the Welsh regional sale with a ram lamb.
Back with the ram lambs, the 2017 Skipton supreme champions, the Trumper family – mum and dad Lyndon and Jane, daughter Charlotte and twin sons Edward and Oliver - who run the Beiliau flock at Brynderi, Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, again made the long journey north worthwhile when achieving some solid prices.
Doing best at 850gns was a February-born 2-horn ewe lamb by Border Windrush, also responsible for the family’s 2017 victor, out of a Pard House dam, which sold locally to Betty Palmer’s Nettlebed flock in Grindleton.
The family also made 700gns with another Border Windrush-bred charge, their third prize lamb ram, Beiliau Vaquish, a January-born 2-horn. The Bentley Stardust son sold to J Hardman, of Windermere, with the same combination of exhibitor and purchaser achieving 510gns for the third prize shearling ewe.
This was again by Border Windrush, a ram bred by Clive Richardson in Cumbria and used jointly with fellow Welsh Jacob breeder Rhodri Jones, who has the Lower Argoed flock in Builth Wells, Powys.
Mrs Price’s husband Robert, who runs his own Pentre flock, again won tickets at Skipton, sending out the third prize ewe lamb, a January-born 4-horn by his own Overdale Robert Price, out of a Royal Three Counties first prize winning grand-daughter of Pentrenant Will.I.Am, sold for 540gns to Ewan McMillan (Luruha). Mr Price also stepped up with the second and third prize aged ewes, the latter making 160gns.
Mike Munro himself did well with three 500gns sales, among them the second prize ram lamb, the January-born 4-horn Kinloch Harry, by Oakdean Dave, and another prize-winning ewe lamb from the same home. Both rosette winners were out of home-bred ewes by Blackbrook Fire Balls. The ram lamb joined Shirley Masterman and Roselyn Richards, of the Ghyllcroft flock in Ripon, the gimmer lamb falling to RSS Newall, of Hexham.
Heading the aged ewe prices at 230gns was the first prize winner from the Ridout and Higginson family –Vera Ridout, her daughter Hayley Higginson and her own daughter Abbie, who run the Meadowland flock at Somerford Booths, near Congleton in Cheshire.
The sale attracted a 143-strong entry and produced the following
averages:
Ram lambs £736, shearling ewes £349, ewe lambs £197.
shearling rams £112.
Show judge was Lesley Partridge, of Droitwich, Worcestershire, with Skipton-based JACS Trade & DIY again sponsoring.
Show and sale organiser Gavin Haworth, who runs the Hurrsdale
flock in Skipton, said:
“Once again Skipton Auction Mart proved
the place to be for selling Jacob sheep. With a strong selection
of both 2-horn and 4-horn sheep, we once again attracted a huge
array of vendors and buyers from the length and breadth of the
country, as well as Northern Ireland. Providing a quality environment
to show, then sell, we hope to keep growing the sale year on year
and breaking more records in the future!”
