The breed exhibit at Sheep 2025 is shaping up to be an excellent spectacle with seven breeds holding national championships at the event and over 15 more exhibiting with a breed display. These are detailed in Tables 1 and 2.

Many breed societies are coming off the back of a relatively good year with sale averages up on previous years. While confidence has been dented somewhat by hogget prices failing to live up to the high point of previous years, the fact that upwards of 7,000 farmers have to source a genotyped ram under the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) makes Sheep 2025 an important shop window for both those selling and buying.

FBD Five-Star LambPlus Classes

The deadline for pedigree breeders exhibiting at Sheep 2025 to apply to participate in the FBD Five-Star LambPlus Classes is approaching fast on Monday 16 June. The across-breed competition, with a total prize fund of €2,000, has two classes – a replacement class and a terminal class, each with a fund of €1,000. This includes a first prize of €400 with prizes of €230, €150, €100, €70 and €50 from second to sixth place.

To be eligible for entry, rams must be rated as five-star on the relevant index and be presented from a flock with a data quality index (DQI) score of 60% or greater. Sheep Ireland explains that the Replacement class: “will look for rams that will pass the best physical attributes desired in breeding female replacements and the Terminal class will focus on selecting a ram with the best carcase characteristics, all while being ranked in the top 20% of the breed based on genetic analysis”.

The judge assigned with the difficult task of selecting the 2025 winners is John Donohoe, well-known breeder of Texel and Charollais sheep in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny. The LambPlus classes are free to enter and a ram can only enter one of the two classes. Entries for the class must be emailed to Sheep Ireland at ramsale@sheep.ie by the deadline of Monday 16 June. The email must include the ram’s tag number and the class you wish to enter him in.