[ukag0972]

I'm sure there's a rare  and minority sale at ua in Stirling! I must check!

The apparent reason behind the poultry sale was that too many dealers were "to be advised" on their entries making the sale difficult as no kne knew what was going to be sold!  Or do they told me!!!!

Sheep did make good money, far better than last year but they was an English buyer stocking up to take down south. He even bought the cows and paid nearly £500 each for 10 year old cows with calves(madness)

I'm home now, thankfully!!!

[Croftgary]

Hi, I went and it was quiet with buyers, however the one buyer who bought about 90 per cent of the stock certainly racked up the prices,I felt sorry for anyone going to buy some sheep to start. I got the impression that he was not a buyer from down south as he was prepared to beat any price to get the stock. I think he was bidding against his toddlers at some points..
That said at least the sellers made good prices.
Easy for me to say not being a member of the smallholder association yet anyway, but maybe a good way to encourage this sale to grow is maybe to put up some prizes for poultry,sheep,goats,pigs?   

[Fleecewife]

Was the person buying a lot wearing a green boiler suit?  If so he bought several Hebridean tups at top prices, even a rubbish one ! Can't all have been for himself.

Prizes can be a good incentive, but usually come after more involvement from the breed/rare breed societies.  The Hebridean sale is now quite successful having become The Official Heb sale in Scotland.  The Shetland official sale is at Lanark in Aug and the SSS don't seem to want to be involved at all with Stirling, presumably in case it's competition    And as I mentioned before the RBST will not be involved unless the standards improve greatly - they are not interested in trying to raise the standards first.  There were several Soays there but all unregistered so the Soay Sheep Soc would not be interested, and they come under the RBST anyway.  Is anyone a member of the Caledonian RBST Group?  They used to be involved when the Rare Breeds sale was at Perth - that was UA I think.

Sorry I didn't see any of you there......

[Croftgary]

Hi, no the guy who was buying everything! was wearing a Barbour style jacket and had two young kids with him. Hope he had permission from OH or else he will be in BIG trouble...

[Sandy]