Strong entries ahead of Caithness three-day sheep fair at Quoybrae
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The annual three-day sheep fair hosted by Aberdeen and Northern Marts will be held at Caithness Livestock Centre, Quoybrae, from Thursday to Saturday.
The three-day fair kicks off with the annual show and sale of multi breed rams under the auspices of the Caithness Sheep Breeders Association on Thursday, sponsored by HRN Tractors.
Strong entries include over 170 rams forward, with 90 Texels, 41 Suffolks and 41 any other breeds including Blue Texels, Dutch Spotted, Beltex and crosses, across both Non-MV and MV sections.
Thursday’s show of Texels will be judged by Nicola Wordie, Cairnborrow Farm, Huntly; the Suffolks will be judged by Scott Dey, Bogbeth Livestock, Inverurie; and judging the any other breed section is Tracey Nicol, Balthayock Farm, Perth.
The show starts at 4pm with the sale commencing at 6.30pm.
Friday will see the annual North Country Cheviot Sheep Society show and sale of 110 North Country Cheviot rams and ram lambs and females, sponsored by Agri-Lloyd. The day will begin at 7.15am with mouth inspections carried out by DS Macgregor and Partners, followed by the show at 8.30am and sale at 10:30am.
Norman Robinson, Summerhill House, Ballyrolly, Northern Ireland and James Metcalf, Hardenclough Farm, Edale, are set to judge the shearlings and ram lambs section and the females and groups will be judged by Ben Baker, Llangattock Park Farm, and Katy Davies, Golyfat Dyyyrn, Conwy.
Following on from the sale of North Country Cheviot rams will be the sale of 1500 all classes of Gimmers including hill and park Cheviot Gimmers, Cheviot Mules, Texels and Continental.
Closing the three-day event on Saturday will be the annual sale of 2000 store lambs, breeding ewes and feeding ewes, including entries from HISHA-accredited flocks and from Dunbeath, Bettyhill, Forsinard and west Sutherland areas.
Scott Chapman, auctioneer at Aberdeen and Northern Marts, said “We are pleased to have a strong entry so far across all sections of the three-day sheep fair at Quoybrae. The annual shows and sales always attracts top-quality stock from a variety of leading show and commercial breeders across the north of Scotland, giving farmers the opportunity to showcase the best of their stock to a busy ringside of buyers.”
Online bidding will be available for all sales.
