The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Elmscleugh ram lamb tops the bill at Lanark Blackface sale
sheep: Lanark Auction Mart plays host to lively trading
Blackface rams met a huge trade at the breed’s two-day sale at Lanark, where ram lambs sold to £85,000 and averaged at £4,229 for 182 – a rise of £1,109 on the year for a similar number sold.
Leading the way, late in the ram lamb day, was the pen number one from Willie Dunlop and sons Quintin and William, Elmscleugh, Dunbar.
Their topper, sired by a home-bred son of a £12,000 Gass tup, and out of a ewe by a £16,000 Cross flatt, sold in a two-way split, to Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn, Muirkirk, and the Campbells at Glenrath, Peebles.
Next best for the Dunlops was a £25,000 sale for a son of last year’s big seller, the £160,000 Dalchirla.
He was knocked down to Tommy Renwick, William hope; Billy Renwick, Blackhouse, Yarrow; Burncastle Farming Co, Lauder; and John and Iain Finlay, Blackcraig, Castle Douglas.
Another two from the same pen hit five-figures, with a £160,000 Dalchirlasired lamb selling at £15,000 to Ian Bond, Glen, Gatehouse, and the Ramsays at Milnmark, Dalry, while one by an £11,000 Elmscleugh made £13,000 to Alan Smith, Crosswoodburn, West Lothian, and Matthew Hamilton, South Cobbinshaw.
Also proving extremely popular were the Crossflatt lambs from John Murray, Muirkirk, which sold at £52,000 and £24,000. Both sons of the £160,000 Dalchirla, the first sold to David Morrison, Dalwyne, Barr, and Jim and Eion Blackwood, Dalblair, Cumnock, with Mr Murray retaining a third share, while John and Charlie Harkin, Loughash, Northern Ireland, forked out £24,000 for the other.
Earlier, Hugh and Alan Blackwood sold sons of the £160,000 Dalchirla ram at £36,000 and £28,000, from their Auldhouseburn consignment. The first in the ring sold to Crossflatt and Paul Coulson, Hexham, while the £28,000 seller went to Ian Hunter, Dalchirla, Crieff; Allan Wight, Midlock, Crawford; and Ewan Mcmillan, Lurg, Fintry.
The Blackwoods also got £20,000 for a son of last year’s £50,000 Crossflatt, which sold to the Kays at Gass, Straiton, and the Harkins, Loughash.
Two ram lambs reached £30,000 apiece from Allan Wight and son Allan’s Crawford-based Midlock consignment.
First at that money was a son of a £7,000 Midlock, out of a ewe by a £28,000 Loughash, which sold to Mary McCall-Smith, Connachan, Crieff, and Jack Kay, Hartside, Lammermuir.
At the same price, one by the homebred Goldblend, out of a ewe by a £26,000 Dalchirla, sold to Alastair MacArthur, Nunnerie, Elvanfoot, and Duncan MacGregor, Burnhead, Kilsyth.
At the first day’s sale shearlings averaged at £2,214 for 285 in Ring 1 (+£304 on the year, for 15 more sold), with 219 leveling at £546 in ring two.
Trade peaked at £24,000 twice, with Mary McCall-Smith’s Connachan pen being the first to achieve that price. Her best was a son of a £40,000 Dalchirla tup, out of a ewe by an £11,000 Greenside sire. Final bidders were the Wights at Midlock, Crawford, and Ian Hunter, Dalchirla, Crieff. The other at £24,000 came from Jimmy and Donald MacGregor’s Dyke consignment. Sired by a home-bred son of Starbuck, and out of a ewe by a son of an £18,000 Easter Happrew, he sold to Dan Walton, Wanwoodhill, Alston; and Alan McClymont, Kirkstead and Dryhope, Yarrow.