IRELAND REGION – Regional Contact Member – Matthew Kehoe
The late summer agricultural shows have finally drawn to a close with fierce yet wholesome competition peaking towards the end of the season and finally dissipating suddenly with our last show after which we all let the rams out to the ewes, take in the meal troughs and allow life to return to a slower and more natural rhythm as we settle into autumn and the beginning of a new year in the sheep breeder’s calendar.
By the time you’ve received your winter Journal we will all with some luck be looking forward to a bountiful lambing season on the back of a good scanning result.
Our two official show and sales in the Ireland region took place over the summer with a full report on each detailed elsewhere in the Journal. My thanks as always to our judges, inspectors, adjudicators, photographers, auctioneers and my hard working regional committee for offering up their time and efforts year on year to make these two sales a success.
The Hughes & Macamore Autumn Collection Online Sale, an unofficial private sale outside the auspices of the Jacob Sheep Society, saw a new record price for a pedigree Jacob sheep in the Republic of Ireland with lot 15 closing at €1610 for Macamore Daisy, a shearling ewe by Hope Warrior and out of Macamore Black Beauty now away to the Colhoun family’s Kingarrow flock. The sale featured 16 lots of pedigree Jacob sheep from both the Hughes & Macamore flocks with a select group of rams, ram lambs, shearling ewes and ewe lambs in what was a first for the Jacob breed to be sold in an online timed auction format on MartEye.
The National Ploughing Championships held in Screggan, Co. Offaly seen the usual suspects band together to build, stock and man the Jacob Sheep Society stand in the National Sheep Breeders Association polytunnel. As always the Jacobs on display, kindly provided by the Harney family (Green Star flock), were very popular with the general public. Our new stand built by David Poston survived its inaugural voyage south of the border taking David a mere four and a half hours to deliver it from Dungiven to Screggan on a Sunday afternoon. My thanks to all of the breeders that made an effort to man the stand, look after the sheep and drop in for a chat over the course of the three day event – none more so than Martin Harney who gave three full days on the job!
As I write this passage we look forward to our Ireland region annual general meeting at the Bailie Hotel in Cavan and by the time you receive your Journals we will have hopefully held a productive AGM and later found the bar in time for the real discussions to take place.
Two dates worth adding to the diary before Christmas are the Rare & Minority Breed Sale to be held in Cahir Mart on Saturday 29th of November and the Northern Ireland InLamb & Ewe Lamb Sale to be held at Beattie’s Pedigree Centre on Friday 12th of December.
For those travelling the distance to Omagh for the sale, a group of us will be staying at the Silver Birches Hotel on Friday night – we hope you can join us. A reminder that all sheep at the Northern Ireland sale are eligible for export to mainland UK with only those from a scrapie monitored holding or possessing the ARR/ARR genotype eligible for export to the Republic of Ireland.
In what feels like a very swift passing of time my first term as the Ireland regional contact member is coming to an end in April. I intend to stand again for another three year term commencing in April 2026 if you’ll have me and I hope I can count on all of your support in protecting and preserving our wonderful breed.