The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Fourteen lots hit five figures at Blackface shearlings sale
Livestock: Dyke rams from the MacGregors at Milton of Campsie steal the show
Blackface shearlings met a strong trade on day one of the breed’s annual twoday sale at Lanark, with no fewer than 14 lots hitting the five-figure mark and Ring 1 seeing increased averages and more sold on the year.
The Dyke rams from Jimmy and Donald MacGregor at Milton of Campsie are regularly up among the best prices.
This year they stole the show, securing the top two prices on the day at £30,000 and £26,000, and their 11 lots averaged out at £7,440.
A trio of buyers – the Renwicks at Blackhouse, Yarrow, the McClymonts at Tinnis, Yarrow and Burncastle Farming Co, Lauder – paid £10,000 apiece to secure the pen number two at £30,000.
He is a son of a £14,000 Dyke, out of a ewe by a home-bred son of Private Eye. Just before that, the pen leader, a son of a £6,500 Dyke, sold at £26,000, to Allan Wight, Midlock, Crawford, Alastair MacArthur, Nunnerie, Biggar, and Ian Hunter, Dalchirla, Crieff.
The dam of that one is by a £25,000 Crossflatt.
On the other side of the coin, the Wight family’s Midlock consignment peaked at £20,000, for a son of a £7,000 Midlock, out of a ewe by £22,000 Connachan.
He went to the Campbells at Glenrath, Peebles, and the Hunters at Dalchirla.
From the same pen, Midlock also received £10,000 for a son of a £24,000 Connachan, out of a ewe by an £18,000 Elmscleugh.
He was knocked down to Glenrath and the Renwick family’s Williamhope flock at Clovenford.
Earlier in the day, the Campbell family’s Glenrath shearlings, brought out by Steven Renwick, had met a flying trade.
They sold to a top of £16,000 for one by an £18,000 Midlock, out of a ewe sired by a £3,200 Greenside.
That one sold to Burncastle Farming Co; Scott Lambie of Ashcraig, Selkirk; John Hamilton of Aikengall, Innerwick; and the Irvings at Mount Benger, Yarrow.
From the same lot, a son of the £85,000 Elmscleugh sire, and out of a daughter of £20,000 Midlock, sold at £12,000.
The buyers were Willie and Ewan Bennie of Merkins, Gartocharn.
Meanwhile, the Pates at Toxside, Gorebridge, forked out £9,000 for another son of the £85,000 Elmscleugh sire.
And, at £11,000, another from Glenrath by the £18,000 Midlock, out of a ewe by an £11,000 Connachan, sold to Aikengall and Tom Paterson, Dunruchan, Crieff.
The Campbells’ Langhaugh consignment also proved popular, selling to £12,000 for another by the £85,000 Elmscleugh, this time out of a ewe by the £65,000 Auldhouseburn.
He went to Gerard McGinn, Chirmorrie, Barrhill.
Best for Tommy Renwick, Williamhope, Clovenford, was a £14,000 bid for a son of a £25,000 Elmscleugh lamb bought two years ago, out of a ewe by a £13,000 Midlock.
Buying back some of their own breeding, he sold to Midlock.
Not far behind, Billy and Andrew Renwick, Blackhouse, Yarrow, received £13,000 for their best, by a home-bred son of a £24,000 Allanfauld,
which sold to Sam McClymont, Tinnis, Selkirk and Alan McClymont, Kirkstead and Dryhope, Yarrow.
Alastair MacArthur’s Nunnerie shearlings from Biggar, peaked at £12,000, with a son of Wisecrack, out of a £50,000 Dalwynesired dam, selling to John and Iain Finlay, Blackcraig, Corsock, and the Harkins’ Loughash flock, Strabane, Co Tyrone.
At the same money, Malcolm Coubrough sold a son of an £8,000 Elmscleugh, out of a £16,000 Blackhouse-sired ewe.
He sold to Aikengall, the Dunlops at Elmscleugh, Dunbar, and Andrew Provan of Parkhall, Douglas.
Tollishill Farming, managed by Alan Rogerson at Lauder, sold to a top of £10,000 for their best shearling. Sired by a £25,000 Elmscleugh, he went to the Elmscleugh and Aikengall flocks.
And, later in the sale, another £10,000 seller was the best from Sam McClymont, Tinnis, which went to the Kirkstead and Dryhope flocks, Yarrow.
He is by a £12,000 Kirkstead, out of a ewe by a £10,000 Glenrath.
The sale averages were: Ring 1, 267 shearling rams, £2,280, (+£83 on the year); Ring 2, 217 shearling rams, £501.34 (-£56 on the year).