‘Phenomenal’ was the word used by Mr Clive Roads the auctioneer at Worcester to describe the interest and trade at our inaugural sale. Vendors and buyers came from the Isle of Wight to Aberdeen and from Anglesey to Kent, emphasising the huge interest in the breed nationwide. Many of the buyers have since joined the society and I believe that for every new ‘Easy Care’ breeder there are probably at least ten who are about to take the plunge. We sheep farmers are a very cautious lot! The Worcester sale next year will be on Saturday September 25th and we are holding another sale at Penrith on Tuesday September 14th, this will hopefully facilitate the Scottish and North of England breeders.

The ‘stock for sale’ page on our website is proving very successful and anyone interested should phone Andy Teal on 01407 840818 - the cost is only £10.

Whilst mentioning future dates for 2010, our annual open day and AGM, which seems to get bigger and better every year, is to be held on Saturday June 26th at the farm of Des Donahoe in Co Meath, Ireland, about an hour West of Dublin. Details of the programme and Hotel etc will be published in our spring newsletter. Be sure to try and come, it will be a wonderful opportunity to visit this beautiful part of the world. Other dates to put in your diary are Scot Sheep at Stirling on June 2nd, South Sheep, Hampshire June 16th and the sheep event at Malvern on August 3rd.

Recording: - Following my comments in the last newsletter we had a meeting of all those interested in this subject on the eve of the sale at Worcester. Over 20 members attended and we are grateful to Derek Steen who chaired the gathering and to Jo Hewitt for taking notes. The fact that we had turned up proved that there was interest and sympathy for recording as the way forward. Some are already doing so and have been for some time either through Signet or privately. For those lambing indoors there is little problem but for the majority of us who lamb outdoors it does involve time. Tagging lambs at birth is the usual method of identification but it does have its drawbacks with a ‘lively’ breed such as ours unless you happen to be there at the time of birth. D.N.A is a much easier option but expensive. A third option was mentioned by the chairman where you gathered the flock when the lambs were a few weeks old and tagged the lambs and spray marked the ewes & lambs then noting down which lambs belonged to which ewe. As I mentioned earlier, identifying the good performers or possibly more important the poor performers is the only way to improve ones flock and has immense satisfaction but to many the sad fact that a big fat ram without records is much easier to sell than the one with good records but possibly straight off grass, until the general public pay a premium for recorded sheep only the few enlightened ones will bother. As as a society we will however try and encourage recording and next year will note in the list of breeders those who do.

Scrapie: - One member has asked me to mention the importance of continuing our policy of using type ‘1’ scrapie rams in our flocks. It would be a great tragedy if all the work and expenses of the past years were to be undone by using a higher risk type ram. With this in mind we will also note those who scrapie record their flock, especially the rams they intend to use or sell to others.

Once more our gratitude to Rumenco for helping us with the printing and I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Iolo Owen, M.B.E., F.R.Ag.S., N.Sch.
Secretary