Blackface ram lamb fetches £75,000 at Dalmally

lambs: Blackfaces from Hunters of Muthill lead the way with top price of £75,000

The Dalchirla flock of Blackfaces run by Ian and Patsy Hunter at Muthill, Crieff, stole the show at Dalmally with a top price of £75,000 and most of the day’s other high prices.

Their number one animal was bought by John Campbell, Glenrath, and Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn.

He is by the £28,000 Auldhouseburn bought at Lanark last year in partnership with Midlock and Lurg, and out of a ewe by a ram known as The Triplet – a home-bred son of the £30,000 Aitkenhead.

Another Dalchirla lamb made the second top price of £32,000 selling to Allanfauld, Troloss and Dyke.

This one was off the £24,000 Connachan bought at Lanark with Midlock, out of a ewe by the £24,000 Elmscleugh that has been a consistent breeder in the flock of Hunter couple’s flock of 1,100 pure ewes.

Another Dalchirla lamb sold for £30,000 to Paul Coulson from High Staward, near Hexham. He was also by the £28,000 Auldhouseburn, while his mother by the £24,000 Elmscleugh.

Another from the pen went to Lurg and Dalwyne for £22,000, and one by a tup known as Borris, which is a home-bred son of the £10,000 Nunnerie, sold to Eoin McKenna and C Phillips of Northern Ireland for £8,000.

Dalchirla also topped the shearling trade when Drumgrange paid £30,000 for a son of the £10,000 Nunnerie which was used as a lamb last season. His mother is by another home-bred son of the £30,000 Aitkenhead.

Outwith the Dalchirla pen, the trade peaked at £25,000 for a shearling from the Dunlops, who run the Elmscleugh flock near Innerwick, Dunbar.

Their dearest animal was by a home-bred ram that sold for £11,000 at Lanark as a shearling and out of a £90,000 Dalchirla-sired mother. He was bought by the Wights from Midlock.

Another from Elmscleugh sold for £16,000 to Moorfoot, he was among the first crop of shearlings by the record-setting £160,000 Dalchirla, which sired lambs to £25,000 last year.

His dam is by a retained son of the £22,000 Nunnerie.

In total, 158 ram lambs sold to average £2,157, against £2,033 for 168 in 2016.

The 525 shearlings averaged £983, up from £792 for the same number last year, with no fewer than 16 five-figure sales.

Ian Hunter, of Muthill, near Crieff, with one of his top Blackface lambs at the Dalmally sale.