Inishowen-bred pedigree ram breaks mart record

A pedigree sheep breeder from Inishowen has broken the Raphoe Mart sale price record for a ram.

Natasha Doherty, who at 23 is probably the youngest Suffolk sheep breeder in Donegal, sold her 10-month-old ram for an eye-watering €3,000 on October 15.

Named Parish Impeccable, the ram was bought by renowned sheep breeder and printer, Seamus Browne, owner of the Errigal Suffolk flock, just outside Letterkenny.

Speaking to Inish Times, A clearly delighted Natasha, who is part of the Suffolk Sheep Society, Donegal Branch, explained her flock, known as Parish Suffolk was started by her father, Neil, in 2007. Their farm is situated on the old mountain road in The Parish, just before Mamore Gap.

“I was born and bred with sheep,” said Natasha, “and, roughly, three years ago, I took over the flock. I have a great interest in sheep breeding. The whole idea is to try and breed a sheep, which will get the top prize.

“There are a lot of flocks and breeders I would look up to and I would copy what they do to try and genetically engineer a top, winning sheep. The ram which was sold at Raphoe was an embryo transfer. We flushed the eggs out of our best ewe and implanted them into easy lambing, cross-bred, ewes - basically IVF.

“This was my first time ever in the ring selling a Parish Suffolk. The ram was born at the end of January, so he was only coming 10 months old.

“What made him worth €3,000? Well, you can see how level his back is. He has a very good square confirmation. He is very in proportion. When he walks, he has great style in his gait and his head has nice long, low ears, with a flick. He has a nice broad brow bone and a flat face and he has a nice head. What they would really be looking for is the fact his two front legs are very, very straight. He is very straight in the front legs and his front legs are the same length as his back legs. He is very in proportion and level,” said Natasha.

Natasha added that Parish Impeccable was also a very clean sheep.

“Where the wool meets the black, you could nearly draw a line. The wool does not scatter down his leg. It is just the wool and then the black. That is classed as a very clean sheep. On top of that, he has a top-class bloodline. His daddy was a €40,000 ram and his mother has multiple sires of the year in her pedigree.

“He was sold at the Donegal Suffolk Sheep Sale at Raphoe Mart. Before I went to the sale, I posted a few photographs and videos on my Facebook page as advertisements, just to let people know he was coming to that show. I had people from Turkey, The Netherlands, and Belgium all making offers and willing to transport the sheep to Europe and the UK.

“But, I thought I would take the chance and put him into the ring in a public sale and see how I get on. I decided to take him to Raphoe not knowing what way it could go.
It was my first time ever in the ring, selling one of my own lambs. The opening bid was €1,000 and I just froze.

“I knew then it was good because rams make about €1,000 to €1,200 so the opening bid would usually be around €500 and you would bid up from there. For it to open at €1,000, I knew I was going to get another €1,000 on top of that but I didn't think I was going to get another €2,000,” said Natasha.

There was also online bidding at the sale, which could be watched live.

Eventually, the bidding closed at €3,000 and Seamus Browne won the ram.

According to Natasha, Seamus' award-winning Errigal Suffolk flock is one of the most recognised Suffolk flocks in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

“I was so nervous because I did have a few offers before the show. I was feeling sick because I turned down that money and I thought I might not make half of it in the sale. But, I listened to my gut. I had a good feeling.
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I wanted to go through the ring because I knew so many people around Ireland had rung me looking for the mart's number so they could get registered to watch the sale online.

“I was staying positive and saying, 'I am going to take him into the ring and see how I get on'. I knew there was a lot of interest. There were people sending local people up to view the ram on their behalf. It was a big deal.

“My daddy is so delighted. He is in England working and he couldn't get home but he was watching it live. I was glad I got the money and I got my name out there but the fact my sheep was sold into Seamus Browne's flock was a big deal.

“Seamus has sold top-price rams at all of the sales. This is a huge achievement for me because Seamus is using my ram to produce and better his flock.”

Natasha said, after the sale, her phone never stopped.

“I had more than 120 messages from breeders all over Ireland and Europe I had to use Google translate to reply to some of them. Ultimately, my goal is to sell the top-priced lamb at the Lanark show in Scotland but for now, I am concentrating on opening my Pooch Perfect dog grooming business in time for Christmas,” said Natasha.

Seamus Browne told Inish Times he had bought Parish Impeccable because he was a high-quality ram, with great genetics and bloodlines.

Seamus started breeding pedigree sheep in 2008 and won the Irish National Championship in 2011.

“Parish Impeccable did attract a lot of buyers. I heard afterwards that somebody had offered €2,500 privately. There was also interest from Europe, Northern Ireland and local breeders.

“The ram is exceptional and I am really really happy to get him. I bought another one in Ballymena in July and he was €18,500. In 2017, I paid €15,500 for a ram, the highest price ever for the breed in Northern Ireland.

“The media went to town over that and, when all the fuss had died down, I was invited on to The Late, Late Show, where I made an appearance with him.

“That was one of the highlights of my breeding career to date.

“Sheep is only a hobby for me I am a printer by trade of Browne Printers Limited in Letterkenny. I called the flock after Errigal, the highest mountain in Donegal, which I thought was a good benchmark.

“My sheep breeding plans are to improve every year. I have another very good ram that was retained in-flock this year and I have the Ballymena ram, which I called Unknown Legend, after a song by one of my favourite singers, Neil Young. I have named a few of my sheep after his songs,” smiled Seamus.