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, a ram lamb, 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 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 was 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 – William and sons William and Quintin – 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.
The Glenrath pen from John Campbell was another to celebrate a good day when lambs sold to £22,000 and £14,000.
The former, which was snapped up by Auldhouseburn and Dollar, is 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.
In total, auctioneers United Auctions sold 158 ram lambs to average £2,157, against £2,033 for 168 in 2016.
The 525 shearlings that went through the ring averaged £983, up from £792 for the same number last year, with no fewer than 16 five-figure sales.
