Tavistock – 24th September 2024

Today’s pre-sale show was kindly judged by Mr James Heard (Hughslade Flock) and kindly sponsored by Harpers Feeds.  There was a good selection of tups for him to ponder over, in both the shearling and lamb classes.

The final order in the shearling class began with Helen Havill with her strong homebred traditional tup, Martin Grange S032.  This is yet another notable win for Helen in a string of successes at shows and sales throughout the Wales and South West area this year.  Second spot was awarded to Phil Medland with S001, a well marked and good bodied sort from his own Tavy Flock.  Helen Havill took third with Martin Grange S029 and the fourth place was claimed by the Robson family with Wildmoor S013, another grand crossing tup, bred from their home in Cornwall.

Following on, the top two places in the tup lamb class were taken by Peter Heard with Yelland T006 and Yelland T005 first and second respectively.  Both are by Steel S001, who has proven himself well across the board not only today, but with lambs placed well in the progeny show earlier in the year, as well as having 5 lambs in the champion pen of mule ewe lambs in the sale at the beginning of the month.  Marcus Hunt took the third and fourth spots with his sweet traditional lambs, T005 and T002, from his Bradwell/Hunt flock in Somerset.

In the absence of any females this year, the championship was decided between the top two shearling tups and first place tup lamb.  The outcome – a win for the lamb (Yelland T006) from Peter Heard, described as very correct by the judge.  Helen Havill’s shearling, Martin Grange S030, first in its class earlier was a close reserve.

The sale followed a bit later with most sheep finding new homes.  The top price of the day was 750gns for Peter Heard’s 2^nd placed lamb (Yelland T005).  This went home to Messrs C Pearse and Son’s Barramoor flock.  Tups from crossing-type breeders were in slightly higher demand this time, with other notable prices of 700gns and above being achieved twice each for Phil Medland and the Robson family.