£75,000 for ram lamb at Dalmally annual Blackface sale
TOP prices were paid for rams and ram lambs at the United Auctions’ annual Blackface ram and ram lamb sale at Dalmally on Saturday October 21.
Some 158 ram lambs changed hands to level at £2,157, against £2,033 for 168 in 2016, while 525 shearlings averaged £983, up from £792 for the same number last year, with no fewer than 16 five-figure sales.
The highest prices was £75,000 paid to Ian Hunter, of Dalchirla, who sold a ram lamb to 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 is 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 by the £24,000 Connachan bought at Lanark with Midlock, out of a ewe by the £24,000 Elmscleugh, a consistent breeder in the flock of 1,100 pure ewes near Muthill, Crieff.
The top price shearling was also from Ian Hunter, which sold for £30,000 to W A MacFarlane, Drumgrange, while £30,000 secured a Dalchirla lamb for Paul Coulson from High Staward near Hexham, another by the £28,000 Auldhouseburn – the mother was also by the £24,000 Elmscleugh.
Another from this cracking pen went to Lurg and Dalwyne for £22,000 for a son of the £24,000 Connachan. This lamb is by the home-bred son of the £68,000 Elmscleugh that also bred a pair of twins to £20,000 and £14,000.
Another Dalchirla lamb, this time by a tup known as Borris, a home-bred son of the £10,000 Nunnerie, sold to Eoin McKenna and C Phillips, both Northern Ireland, for £8,000. He is also out of a ewe by a son of the £68,000 Elmscleugh.
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 was by a home-bred ram that sold for £11,000 at Lanark as a shearling, 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.
The Dunlops also received £6,000 from Troloss and Nunnerie for a shearling son of the £5,500 Loughash out of a £11,000 Elmscleugh ewe.
The last pen of lambs through the ring from the Glenrath pen of John Campbell received an excellent trade when lambs sold to £22,000 and £14,000. The first selling to Auldhouseburn and Dollarbank – among the first sons to sell by the £85,000 Elmscleugh bought at Lanark which bred sons to £55,000 and £24,000 a few days prior to Dalmally. He is out of a ewe by the £11,000 Greenside that has sired some of this year’s show females. The Bennies from Merkins bought the £14,000, another by the £85,000 Elmscleugh, while the mother is by the £50,000 Crossflat.
Ewen McMillan, Lurg sold his number one shearling to Dalchirla and Midlock for £22,000. Used at home he was bred out of a ewe by the £50,000 Pole and by the £4,200 Connachan sire bought at Lanark two years ago.
Bred the same way, the next shearling Lurg sold to Troloss and Nunnerie for £6,000. The High Croach flock, which is contract farmed by Ben Cluckie and Daw McEwan, sold for £20,000 and £12,000, both by a home-bred ram known as Irn Bru, which is by the £1,900 Upper Cleugh bought at Lanark. Dearest of these and selling to Nunnerie, Drunnadow and Markdhu, was bred out of a ewe by a £1,500 Dalchirla.
Drunnadow and Markdhu forked out the £12,000 between them for the second High Croach by Irn Bru, with this one out of a £2,000 Pole-sired dam.
Hugh and Alan Blackwood from Auldhouseburn received £11,000 for their number one lamb which sold to Upper Wellwood and Greenside. His sire is the £50,000 Crossflat shared with High Staward, while his mother is by the £90,000 Blackhouse.
A lamb from the Kay family at Gass, Straiton, was knocked down at £13,000, while £10,000 was the number one shearling from Mary McCall Smith, Connachan. This ET-bred son of a £4,000 Gass, out of a £1,200 Lurg-sired ewe, sold to Gass and Craignell. Also at £10,000 was a shearling from Macolm Couborough, Whelphill, a son of the £62,000 Dalchirla, which sold two ways to M Ketch, Ballintlea, Eire. His mother is by a loaned Crossflat sire.
Alastair and David Macarthur, Nunnerie, received a top of £9,000 from N Manning, Tweedshaws, for a shearling son of the £12,000 Aitkenhead, mother is by a homebred son of a £24,000 Elmscleugh.
Elmscleugh then forked out £6,000 for another Nunnerie shearling, the mother is also by the £24,000 Elmscleugh, and he is by the £36,000 Midlock sire.
The Balliemeanoch flock from John MacPherson and sons, Alec and Grant, peaked at £7,000 for one of the first shearling sons to sell by the £9,000 Midlock. Bred out of an £18,000 Crossflat-sired ewe and used last year, he sold to Shawesknowe.