NI-bred Richhill Hakka tops the UK’s largest Dorset Sale

There was a buzz in the Exeter Livestock Centre for the UK’s largest and oldest sale of Polled and Horned Dorsets. The two-day event saw a large crowd gather on the Tuesday for the pre-sale show and an even larger crowd gathered on the Wednesday for the sale.

This swarm of buyers pushed up prices considerably on the 2024 sale.

The sale started on Wednesday morning with the females selling first. The first female to hit the sales ring was the pre-sale show female champion.

This powerful shearling ewe sired by Roci Elvis the King was brought forward for sale by Rich and Alice Rossiter of the well-known Huish flock. She sold for 1,000gns (€1,244) to G and E Jones of the Ceredigion based Roci flock.

Following directly after the champion was the reserve female champion Sherborne Hawthorne. This stand-out ewe lamb hailed from the Sherborne pen of Rob and Richard Hole from Holwell. The Sandy Lane Capercaille daughter met a frenzy of bids from ringside bidders. The hammer fell at 1,500gns (€1,865) to S Tayler from Shepton Mallet.

The rest of the individual female consignment to pass through the sales ring sold from 400gns (€497) to 650gns (€808), this led to the individual female section achieving an average of £535 (€634).

Pens of females

The pens of pedigree and Medi-Visna (MV) accredited females followed through the ring after the individuals. The quality was slightly more varied than the previous year, but trade still remained very strong. The 344 sheep in this section sold from 115gns (€143) to 380gns (€473) to average £302 (€358) overall.

There was a massive entry of 877 females in the pens of non-MV accredited females.

There was much speculation on how the trade would be, but vendors were pleasantly surprised with the average up considerably on the 2024 figures, with many of the lots selling from £320 (€379) to £200 (€237).

Ram section

There were fewer rams catalogued for this year’s sale, but with more pedigree and commercial buyers present, it led to a strong clearance rate of 90% being achieved for the 131 rams present and an overall average of £906 (€1,075) was achieved for the 117 rams sold.

Taking the ram lamb section by storm was the pre-sale show overall champion Richhill Hakka. This super polled ram lamb came from the well-known NI-based Richhill flock of Ben Lamb from Co Armagh. This standout lamb also had a standout pedigree being a son of the highly admired Oliver Tree George. After a flurry of bids flowing in from around the ring from breeders from all nations the final bid of 4,500gns (€5,606) was placed by Welsh man TV Hughes from Carmerthenshire, south Wales.

The next-highest price of 3,600gns (€4,483) was paid out for the pre-sale show overall reserve champion Burhos Giant. This polled shearling ram was giant by name and giant by nature. Giant was bred by Cornish breeders Matt and Adam Care. He was sired by Islaharnan Fernando and was purchased by Jim and Joe Dufosse of the Blackhill flock based in Wiltshire.

Shortly after, the Care brothers were on the other side of the ring placing the winning bid of 3,000gns (€3,735) on a flashy polled ram lamb named Mainview Huntsman.

This cracking ram lamb was brought across the water to the sale by Ballymena based breeders Andrew and Caroline Kennedy. Huntsman was sired by the well-known Sherborne Falcon.

Also, selling for 3,000gns (€3,735) was the top-priced horned shearling ram Poorton Gabriel.

This stand-out horned Dorset entry came from the Fooks Bros from Bridport. He was sired by the consistent home bred ram Poorton Double Diamond. It was Ben May from Exeter that placed the winning bid on this top-priced horned lot.

The next best price of 2,200gns (€2,739) was achieved by Jullian Rice from North Tawton, Devon for his pen heading polled ram lamb.

This was followed closely by another polled ram lamb selling for 2,000gns (€2,490) for Somerset breeder Joe Larder.

It was Antrim based breeder Laura Weir that took the day’s next top price of 1,800gns (€2,241) for her ram lamb.