The inaugural Sunny Summer Selection sale ran from the 13-16 June on MartEye in association with Ballybofey and Stranorlar mart.

The entry consisted of 24 lots made up of pedigree Suffolk, Texel and Suftex lots from Donegal breeders Aaron Cox, Michael Leonard and Chris Johnston.

It was a mighty Texel shearling ewe from Aaron Cox’s Drumharriff flock that topped the sale when she sold for €1,900 to the Walsh brothers.

This powerful shearling ewe was sired by Kilduff Floyd, a son of well-known Texel ram Loosebrea Chief.

She was described by Cox in pre-sale comments as “the best hogget we have ever offered for sale”.

Cox went on to sell a further eight pedigree Texel lots to give him a 100% clearance rate and an average of €817.

There was a small entry of just three Suffolk ewe lambs from Micheal Leonard’s Borderview flock, but the quality of these lambs was strong, leading to the consignment topping at €1,300.

This top-priced ewe lamb had a super pedigree, being sired by the 4,400gns Jalex Coke and her dam being the highly admired 4,000gns Jalex ewe purchased by Leonard at the Great Bonanza sale in 2022. Leonard went on to achieve the highest pen average of €933 for his three ewe lambs.

It was Chris Johnston’s super show-ready Suftex hogget ewe Binnionview Moneypenny that topped the strong Suftex consignment, selling for €1,000. Moneypenny has already had great success in the show ring in 2024 as a lamb winning many red rosettes.

A top price of €950 was paid out for the Suftex ewe lamb Binnionview Suzy. Suzy was described by Johnston as “extremely stylish and correct and sure to be one to do well in the show ring”.