OXFORDS SELL TO £500 AT KELSO
Oxford shearling rams from Andrew Rutherford's annual Langrigg consignment from Guards Farm, Gretna, Dumfriesshire sold to a top of £500 at Kelso Ram Sales.
The top ram, a Billesdons Braveheart son, was bought by Highfield Farming, The Knock, Duns, Berwickshire. A further three Langrigg shearlings went to the same buyer at £400 each, joining two rams purchased from Langrigg at last year's sale. They will be used on the farm's large Cheviot x Shetland commercial ewe flock.
One Langrigg shearling went for pedigree work at £350 to Brendan & Amy Hall who run the Caston flock at Attleborough in Norfolk. This ram was sired by Greenlands Garrosh.
The Langrigg pen averaged £410 for five.
Auctioneers: C & D Auction Marts
Langrigg leads the Inaugural Northern sale of Oxford Downs at Carlisle
The inaugural Northern sale of Oxford Downs at Carlisle
took place on Saturday 30th August. A top price of 450gns
was achieved for a shearling ram from Andrew Rutherford,
Guards Farm, Gretna. The shearling ram was a son of
Billesdon's Braveheart and out of a Langrigg ewe and
had won champion in the pre sale show earlier that day.
He sold to Messrs Etherington, Pocklington.
Full report of the sale can be seen in the 'Sale Reports' page.
Entry of 25 Oxford Downs for Carlisle Show & Sale
The Show & Sale of Oxford Downs to be held on Saturday, 30th August at Harrison & Hetherington's Borderway mart, Carlisle has attracted an entry of 25 head comprising 7 rams and 18 ewes. The catalogue is in preparation.
Entries are as follows:
Greystoke (L Chance, Flock No. 1388):
2 shearling rams, 1 one-crop ewe, 3 gimmers
Langrigg (A W Rutherford, Flock No. 977):
1 two-shear ram, 2 shearling rams, 1 ram lamb, 2 two-crop ewes, 4 gimmers, 2 ewe lambs
Rose-Dene (J J Richardson, Flock No. 1297):
1 shearling ram, 2 ewe lambs
Weeton (Mrs R J Steele, Flock No. 1225):
4 ewes lambs
The entries from Rose-Dene and Weeton are MV accredited and Signet performance recorded.
This is an excellent opportunity for breeders to obtain pedigree Oxford ewes and rams for new or existing flocks, and for commercial buyers to purchase Oxford rams for crossing work.
The Premier Show & Sale of Oxford Downs to be held at McCartneys Worcester market on Saturday, 2nd August..
There is an entry of 66 head from 12 flocks, comprising 44 females and 22 rams and including MV accredited and Signet performance recorded stock.
The flocks consigning to the sale are:
Applewick
Billesdons
Caston
Greyland
Horsley
Langrigg
Longfriday
Meadow Farm
Montrose
Pauntley
Rose-Dene
Weeton
The sale gives buyers the opportunity to obtain quality Oxford Down breeding stock, whether a new stock ram, foundation stock for a new flock, females to replenish an existing flock, or a ram for crossing work as a terminal sire. Bidding is available online through MartEye.
Link to catalogue here
Congratulations to Andrew Amor and Holly Plante of the Pauntley Flock who won the breed championship at Devon County Show, the first breed classes of the season.
Judge Mr R Vincent chose to put the homebred ram lamb as his champion.
Reserve Champion and Champion opposite sex went to Ms Rebecca Simpson and her ewe lamb.
Full results can be found at the link below.
(photo courtesy of Country Girl Media)
A new association sale has been added to the list and will take place on Saturday 30th August at Borderway Mart, Carlisle. The sale will be open to all ages of Rams and Females for both MV and Non MV sheep. More details will follow soon.
We have now added an interactive Google map listing all our registered Oxford Down Breeders.
They are listed by Flock and breeder name and show accurate locations.
Contact details of breeders are available by emailing registrations@oxforddownsheep.org.uk
Following the success of the first Oxford ram to take part in the RamCompare scheme last year, a second Oxford Down has been added to the trial this year.
In autumn 2020 an Oxford Down ram, Weeton White Walker from Ruth Steele’s Weeton flock in East Yorkshire became the first Oxford ram to join RamCompare, which is the national on-farm progeny testing scheme organised by Signet. The ram ran with 80 Lleyn ewes on Duncan Nelless’s Thistleyhaugh Farm at Longhorsley, Morpeth, Northumberland. This organic unit supports a flock of 2000 Lleyn ewes.
Now in 2021 a second Oxford Down ram has entered the trial, Lydiard 000111 bred by Lindsay Rumming in her Lydiard flock in Wiltshire. This ram is again being used on 80 Lleyn ewes, these being part of a 1400-strong Lleyn ewe flock run by Ian Robertson at Chawton Park, Alton, Hampshire.
The Weeton ram performed well on the test and it is hoped that the Lydiard ram will further enhance the breed’s results on trial. Getting Oxford rams into the RamCompare test is a major milestone for the breed and is very important in ensuring the breed continues to develop as a terminal sire. Through their participation in the Signet performance recording scheme and RamCompare, the Weeton and Lydiard flocks have taken a significant step for the whole breed in its commercial future.
There are now seven Oxford Down flocks being performance recorded by Signet.
Updated: Nov 16, 2021
Oxford store lambs have been making a good trade through the ring at auction marts this autumn. In early September at Craig Wilson Ltd's second store lamb sale of the season at Ayr market, a pen of Oxford lambs from Mrs Pat Bell of Knowes House, Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire made £98, the second top price of the sale, which had an entry of 1485 lambs. In mid September at Leek mart's second sale of store lambs in Staffordshire, Oxford cross lambs sold to £83.50 twice, first from from R M Phillips & Sons of Ladmanlow and then from R Salt of Waterhouses. This sale had Oxford cross lambs off the Peak District from six different consignors. At the next store sale at Leek in early October pens of Oxford cross lambs again from R M Phillips & Sons sold to £88.50 and £84.
