A hat-trick of world records – £20,000 for a fully broken working sheep dog, £4200 for an eight-month-old part-broken bitch and £3700 for an unbroken five-month-old pup – were set at last week’s virtual online sale at Skipton.
Notably, two of those new highs were achieved by top breeder and trialist, Kevin Evans, Llwynfedwen Farm, near Brecon, Powys.
The £20,000 bid, which eclipses the previous world high of £19,541, paid for a bitch from Kevin’s father, David Evans, Brecon, came for the four-year-old, tri-coloured bitch, Henna.
Henna set a new world record selling for £20,000
Fully broken and with many trials placings, Henna is a daughter of Mr Evans’ own Moss, a red dog that won a couple of nursery trials before being sold privately to Norway. The dam is fellow Welsh breeder Ian Fowler’s Fran, which goes back to Mr Evans’ old Jaff, a dog that won multiple trials and also represented the Welsh national team on several occasions.
Henna sold to Black Mountains hill farmer, Donna Jones, South Wales, after viewing online video footage of the dog.
Mrs Jones will be putting Henna to work on the family’s two sheep flocks comprising 500 Suffolk-cross ewes and 250 Welsh Mountain ewes, and might even return to the trials field with her.
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Kevin Evans, who regularly produces stand out dogs, also sold the second top priced entry at £13,500 in the fully broken 30-month-old black, white and mottled bitch, Floss.
She is by Gerard Lewis’ Sam, out of Roy Price’s Nell, which was by Mr Evan’s own Caleb and goes back to Mirk, a former International supreme and dual World Sheep Dog Trials finalist. Floss found a new home in the US with a buyer from Oklahoma.
Mr Evans also received £4200 for the eight-month-old part-broken bitch, Nant-y-Moel Tara – thought to be the highest price paid at an official sale for a dog under 10 months.
She is by Mr Evans’ own Tanhill Glen, a dual European Nursery and Royal Welsh champion, out of Floyd Farthing’s Wheatwood Sue, a daughter of Mr Evans’ European Nursery champion and dual Welsh and International brace champion, Derwen Doug.
Tara sold to Orkney with Sean Cursiter, Laga Farms, Evie, which is home to 750 pure Lleyns and 280 New Zealand Romneys, along with a 100-strong suckler cow herd.
The third record of £3700, for an unbroken pup, was achieved by Northern Ireland breeder, Donal Mullaney, from Letterkenny, Co Donegal, who smashed his previous his world record pup prices of £2700 and £2350 with Jack, a litter mate of his two top-performing forerunners.
Jack is yet another son of fellow Irishman Martin Feeney’s top trials dog, also Jack, a semi-finalist in the both the 2014 and 2017 World Sheep Dog Trials which was also placed in the Irish National team on no fewer than seven occasions. The dam is Mr Mullaney’s own Nell, a daughter of Lad, from Roscommon’s Pat Byrne. Jack returned to Co Donegal selling to Michael McHugh, Milford.
Mr Mullaney also received £4600 for the fully broken three-year-old black and white bitch, Dollar, by top James McGee’s 2014 supreme champion, Glencregg Silver. Out of Anthony Friel’s Nell, Dollar, she sold to M and M Cunningham, Newcastle, Co Down.
Welsh handler, Dewi Jenkins, Tal-y-bont, got £7800 for the 18-month-old fully broken home-bred dog, Clwyd Bill. He is by his own stud dog Jock, and out of E Edwards’ Clwyd Mali, a daughter of James McGee’s Glencregg Silver.
Of the 67 dogs offered for sale, 44 found new homes to average £3522.
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