Mammoth Beltex entry for Carlisle sale

A whopping 777 Beltex have been entered for this week’s breed society sale at Carlisle, with a total of 594 tups catalogued alongside 203 shearling ewes.

Most leading breeders are represented, with John Cowan’s Brickrow flock, Ayr, having a raft of entries, including 10 ram lambs by leading sires including imported sire Mustang and British bred Corstane Coulter.

A highlight from Brickrow will be Brickrow Mahogany Magic, a Mustang son out of a dam which stood breed champion at the Royal Highland last year. Also entered are ET brothers Brickrow Mysterious Myth and Brickrow Mausoleum Maybe, both out of a Cookstown Hasmish daughter which is full sister to the Highland champion last year.

Allan Jackson’s Headlind flock also has some classy names among its back pedigrees and his entries will also be well worth a look, with one of his shearlings, Headlind Lackey, described as the best Beltex bred at Headlind.

The MacAllister family will also be over from Northern Ireland with a trailer load, while more local breeders Gavin Shanks, Lanarkshire, and Messrs Ryder, Dumfrieshire, will doubtless also be worth a look.

But much like the Suffolk sale at Edinburgh, there is a conspicuous lack of performance recording figures in the catalogue, with none of the massive entry having any data to back up their claims. Its a sad endictment on both the way performance recording is viewed by many breeders and the breed itself that the technology available has yet to be grasped.

Commercial farmers will doubtless still take plenty of sheep home with them, but one wonders how much longer this situation can persevere.