A buoyant mood at this year’s NSA Wales & Border Early Ram Sale meant good sheep sold well and the sale grossed a record £256,880, £43,000 more than last year, with a top price of 1750 guineas. The number of rams sold was 426, well up on last year’s 390, with more than 76 per cent of the rams forward sold, compared to last year’s 72 per cent.

Generally, vendors were pleased with the day’s trading, saying good sheep had sold well.

Chairman John Owens said: “Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, with good sheep making good money. The better sheep found a new home and all breeds had good demand and sold well, with many showing increased averages.”

Executive director Jane Smith added: “It was great to see a record turnover, it’s the first time the sale has grossed more than £250,000 and we were delighted with the trade generally. We used social media to bring a wider audience to the sale and we were pleased to see new faces, along with our established buyers.”

The headline figure this year was 1750 guineas for a Texel shearling, sold by S4C Ffermio presenter Meinir Howells and her husband Gary.

Tycam Y Bardd out of the homebred Tycam Solo sold to K & J Davies of Cefn Coch, Heyhope, Powys, while another of their tups sold for 1100 guineas and a third for 950 guineas, with a sale average for the family of £757 for 15 yearling tups.

The Howells family of Pentrecwrt, Llandysul, regularly sell at the NSA Wales & Border Sales. The remaining 60 of their pedigree Texel tups will be offered for sale at the main September sale.

A Charollais sold by Charles Marwood to Reg Brooke topped the breed at 980 guineas, with another sold by W C & R L Bowen to James Tenbury for 980 guineas.

A ram from Charles Harding’s Suffolk flock sold to the Dufosee family of Warminster for 920 guineas, while Adrian Dufosee’s Beltex X topped the breed prices at 800 guineas.

Dave Roberts of Shrewsbury was delighted when his two year old Blue Texel ram topped the breed price at 800 guineas. He said he had only been breeding Blue Texels for three years and this was his first home bred ram, a tup he praised for its ‘shape and style’.