Sheep Ireland Elite €uroStar Multi-Breed Ram sale will take place on Saturday, August 24th 2024 in Tullamore Mart, Co. Offaly.
Important Dates
How to Enter
Once logged into your Sheep Ireland account, you can access the sales entry page either by selecting the sales banner which will appear on the home screen of your Sheep Ireland account or by selecting the ‘Sales Entries’ tab.
In the ‘Sales Entries’ tab, the Sheep Ireland Elite €urostar Multi-Breed Ram Sale should appear as an option if you are eligible for entry. Select the sale to continue to animal selection.
Once selected, on the left of the screen you will be able to view the sales entry criteria and the number of entries which can be entered in the sale. On the right of the screen, you will be provided with all the important information regarding the sales and contact details if you have any queries regarding your entries.
All animals eligible for entry will appear available for selection. Under the ‘Sales Entry Criteria’ you will see the number of entries allowed. Once you have selected your maximum number of entries, all other eligible animals on your account will become unavailable. You can edit the animals which you have selected by unselecting animals you no longer wish to enter and selecting a new animal.
Once happy with your selection, you can click to proceed.
You will now be presented with the animals you have selected for entry. Animals will be grouped according to their breed. You can edit the order which your animals will enter the ring by dragging and dropping the handle. Additionally, you can add comments for each animal in the box provided.
Once happy with your selection, ring order and comments for each animal you may click to proceed.
Finally, you must accept Sheep Ireland’s terms and conditions, which can be accessed by selecting the link on the page.
Once satisfied with your entry, you can click to submit your entry!
Entry Criteria
- €uroStar Index – All rams must be 5 Stars for either the Replacement or Terminal index at the time of catalogue printing. These can be checked using your Sheep Ireland online €uroStar report for the most up-to-date genetic evaluation results.
- Genotyped with Genomic Evaluation – All rams entered in the sale must be genotyped via the Sheep Ireland genomic service.
- Fully Parentage Verified – All rams must be fully parentage (Sire and Dam) verified. That means, that the mother and father of every ram entered must also be genotyped with Sheep Ireland. If a sire or dam mismatches and is removed, the animal must have a new sire or dam assigned via genomic parentage predictions to be eligible for the sale.
- Data Quality Index (DQI) – Breeders wishing to enter sheep in the sale must have a flock DQI of 85% or higher at the time of catalogue printing. You can get your most up to date DQI score on your online account at sheep.ie, and update it manually by clicking “Recalculate”. See how you can improve your DQI here.
- Scrapie Type – All rams entered in the sale must be Scrapie Type 1, 2, or 3. This information is available in your genomic results screen.
- Flock Linkage Status – Flocks that wish to enter the sale must be genetically linked in 2024. You can check your flock linkage status by visiting your €uroStar profile through your online account. Flock linkage is now updated after all the 2024 lambing data has been submitted to the database.
- Ram Inspection – All rams must be physically correct, like any breed society sale. Sheep Ireland will carry out a thorough ram inspection on the day and inspect all rams upon entry to the sale. Any sheep which, in the inspector’s opinion, are not physically correct will be rejected immediately.
Number of Rams Eligible for Entry
The size of the flock is determined by the number of pedigree ewes that lambed down to a ram of the same breed. If a breeder has more than one breed, they are eligible to enter rams from each breed.
It is worth noting, that these numbers may be subject to change, depending on the volume of entries.
Genotyping Precautions
Due to the possibility of a ram having a sire or dam changed and/or having a change in €uroStar values following genotyping, we would advise each breeder to genotype an additional ram(s) as substitutes well in advance of the sale.
It will take up to 1 month from the ram’s tissue sample arriving in the lab to the ram having a genomic evaluation, so this process cannot be completed at short notice.
Breeders aiming to attend the sale must send the DNA samples to the lab before the end of June.
We have advised that potential rams for the sale were DNA sampled and returned to the lab no later than June 1st, as this will allow sufficient time for rams to be re-sampled in the event of the sample failing the quality control checks at the lab or to rectify any parentage errors found.