Dalmally sale of lambs is largest seen for 20 years
LADY Claire Macdonald witnessed an impressive 10,882 entries at United Auctions’ annual show and sale of blackface lambs when she visited Dalmally Auction Mart for the first time on Saturday.
Lady Claire’s visit to the prestigious sale at Dalmally offered the well-respected cook and food writer, who is an official Scotch Lamb ambassador with Quality Meat Scotland, an opportunity to learn more about the importance of the auction system.
The entry of 8,757 head of blackface lambs, 1,776 crossbred lambs and 289 feeding sheep is the largest seen at the centre in the past 20 years. The packed mart accommodated the bumper stock in 200 extra pens in the autumn sunshine.
Buyers from the local area were joined by those from the south of England to bid on stock drawn from Lochaber, Kintyre, south Argyll, the islands, the Oban and Dalmally areas, as well as Perthshire and Stirlingshire.
As Lady Claire toured the bustling market, with her husband Lord Godfrey, she spoke with UA customers and also signed 50 Scotch Lamb recipe books for which UA made a donation toward the STV Children’s Appeal.
Lady Claire said: ‘ We had an absolutely wonderful day. It’s been enlightening to speak to the farmers directly about what they do, learn more about the different breeds and see the thriving market system at Dalmally in action.
‘I’ll be able to use the knowledge from the visit in my cooking demonstrations with lamb where the insight about provenance and farm assurance is so important.’
Lady Claire went on to present the James Weir Memorial Trophy for the championship pen of 50 blackface lambs to Donald and Morag McCorkadale of M/s Buchanan, Achnaba, Connel, who were also consecutive winners from 2012 to 2014.
The prize-winning pen made the top price of £ 58 for the blackface lambs and went home with the judge, Ian Reid, of Methven, Perthshire.
The reserve champion pen went to Tayvallich Estate for £ 56, selling to GL & D Reid, South Park, Perthshire, while third place was awarded to Clachan Farms, Kilninver, for £ 55 and was bought by M/s W J Cameron, Keith.
Lady Claire also took the opportunity to carve and sample the blackface lamb spit roast, which received her seal of approval. The lamb was supplied by local farmer Angus MacFadyen and Son of Bragleenmore Farm, by Oban, and provided by Oban Spit Roasts.
Peter Wood, UA auctioneer, said: ‘It was a pleasure to host Lady Claire at Dalmally. Customers were delighted to meet her and pleased to know she is giving the product the recognition it deserves. She created an extra buzz about the place during a busy sale.’
The blackface lambs averaged out £ 38.52 per head for ‘top, second and third draws’ sold, as against £40.16 per head last year. The overall sale average for all sheep sold was £ 39.70 per head or 145.76p per kilo.