Sheep breeders participating in the Sheep Ireland LambPlus programme will have a chance to have their ram crowned as the top ram on either the replacement or terminal index at the Sheep 2025 major sheep event taking place in Teagasc, Mellows Campus, Athenry, Co Galway on Saturday 21 June.

This follows the announcement that the FBD Five-Star LambPlus Classes will take place at Sheep 2025.

The interbreed championships have a replacement class and a terminal class with a €1,000 prize fund for each.

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, breeder of Texel and Charolais 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.

Breed society entries

Sheep breed societies are reminded that the closing date for entries to host breed championships or breed displays at Sheep 2025 is approaching fast on 31 May 2025. Sheep breed societies or breeding groups hosting breed championships or having a breed display can book their stand by clicking here.