A huge crowd gathered in Ballymena Livestock Mart for the annual Ballymena Bluefaced Leicester sale. With a massive entry of 218 shearling and aged rams, 258 ram lambs and 35 females, it was no easy task for the day’s judge, Martyn Archer, from the Carry House Flock.

Demand was very high for male lots throughout the day, with shearling and aged rams averaging £1,450 (€1,739) and ram lambs averaging £1,333 (€1,599). Demand for female lots was slightly lower, which saw an average of £394 (€473).

Breaking the Ballymena Bluefaced Leicester record by selling for 28,000gns (€35,260), was the first prizewinning shearling and overall reserve champion. This impressive ram came from the pen of J Mills. Mills went on to sell a further seven shearling rams to give him a very impressive average of just over 5,000gns (€6,298) for his pen of eight. The next top price in the shearling and aged ram section was a shearling ram from S Wilson that sold for 14,000gns (€17,639).

It was the Drummuck pen of D McCrystal that both top-priced ram lambs hailed from, with the first selling for 16,000gns (€20,162) followed closely by the next selling for 10,000gns (€12,602).