Blackface rams sold to a top of £60,000 at the breed’s annual ram sale in Dalmally.
Averages were up at the sale, organised by the Blackface Sheep Breeders’ Association and conducted by United Auctions, with 170 ram lambs selling to average £2,504.65 (+£679.65) and 467 shearlings averaging £1,379.83 (+£49).
The sale topper – selling to Willie Dunlop and his sons Quintin and William for their Dunbar-based Elmscleugh flock – was a shearling from Jimmy and Donald MacGregor’s Dyke flock based near Milton of Campsie, Glasgow.
The shearling is by a £17,000 Midlock, which sired the flock’s previous best priced ram at £42,000, and out of a dam sired by previous Royal Highland Show champion Dyke Starbuck.
Next best in the shearlings, selling for £48,000, was an entry from the Wight family’s Midlock flock at Crawford, near Biggar.
By a £45,000 Nunnerie, and out of a show ewe by the home-bred sire Hawkeye, he sold in a three-way split to: the Finlays at Blackcraig, Corsock, Dumfries; the Kays at Gass, Straiton, South Ayrshire; and the MacGregors at Allanfauld, Kilsyth, Glasgow.
Other leading prices for shearlings included £35,000 for an entry from Perth breeder Ian Hunter’s Dalchirla flock based near Crieff.
By the same sire as last year’s record-breaking £200,000 ram lamb – a home-bred son of Dalchirla Boris – and out of a ewe by a £24,000 Elmscleugh, he sold jointly to Perthshire breeder Robert Cockburn for his Knap flock at Hill of Errol, and Ewen Macmillan for his Lurg flock at Fintry, Glasgow.
The MacGregors at Allanfauld sold shearlings to £12,000 for a son of a £3,500 Dalchirla, which has bred sons up to £80,000, and out of a ewe by a £25,000 Crossflat. He sold to the Campbells at Glenrath, Peebles.
Perthshire breeder Robert Cockburn sold shearlings to a top of £11,000 for a son of a £1,200 Nunnerie, out of a ewe by a £1,000 Midlock. He sold to John Marshall, Gosland, Broughton.
Ram lambs
Meanwhile, ram lambs sold to a top of £30,000 for an entry from Hugh and Alan Blackwood’s Auldhouseburn flock at Muirkirk, Ayrshire.
By a £15,000 High Staward, and out of a daughter of a £160,000 Dalchirla, he sold to: Billy and Andrew Renwick, Blackhouse, Yarrow; Richard Carruthers, Merkland, Thornhill; and John Carruthers, Silloans, Rochester.
Other leading ram lamb prices included £28,000 for an entry from the Wight family’s Midlock flock.
By the £200,000 Dalchirla, and out of a daughter of a £6,000 Auldhouseburn, he sold to Glenmore Estate in Ireland.
Ian Hunter sold ram lambs from his Dalchirla flock to £24,000, including another by last year’s £200,000 Dalchirla ram lamb, selling to Glenmore Estate.
Another at this price, selling in a two-way split to the MacGregors at Dyke and the Dunlops at Elmscleugh, was a lamb by a home-bred son of the £160,000 Dalchirla, out of a dam by a £24,000 Connachan.
Ian Hunter also made £16,000 selling another ram lamb by a home-bred son of the £160,000 Dalchirla, this time out of a ewe by a £10,000 Nunnerie. He sold to Messrs McKay, Thurso.