Texel breeders had a busy holiday period with three big sales taking place last week in Meath, Roscommon and Carlow.

The South East Texel club held a smaller sale than usual in Tullow Mart seeing 47 sheep presented for sale with 44 sheep finding new homes on the night, resulting in a 93% clearance rate.

Thirty-four in-lamb ewes were sold to average €925/head, while 10 ewe lambs were sold to average €570/head.

Top call on the night went to Wexford breeder John Kidd when he sold his February 2022-born in-lamb hogget for €3,200. The Silverhill Ecstatic daughter went back to an Auldhouseburn-bred Clinerty Yuga Khan ewe.

She was scanned in lamb with twins to Hillcrest Goodfellas, which was purchased at Blessington for €3,000 at the premier sale in August 2023.

The Greene family from Donegal had a guest consignment of ewes in the sale and their round trip of over 700km from the top of Donegal to Tullow was worth it when they took home the second highest price on the night.

John Greene took home €2,500 for his Procters Cocktail daughter.

Their February 2022-born hogget was sired by Procters Cocktail going back to a homebred Kelso Pavatotti-bred ewe. Her full sister sold at the 2022 Blessington sale for €5,500 and she was scanned in lamb with twins to the €3,500 Umricam Goliath. She sold for €2,500.

Top call in the ewe lamb section went to Carlow breeder John Redmond for his January 2023-born ewe lamb.

She was sired by Mullan Extra Special and went back to a Procters Chumba Wumba-bred ewe.

She was placed third at the all-Ireland Texel championships in Gurteen in 2023 and sold for €2,200 on the night.