A huge demand for the best Blackface ram lambs at Lanark saw the average rise by £639 on the year, to £5,713 for 149, with no fewer than 27 lots hitting five-figure prices, and reaching a top of £80,000.
The fireworks happened at the end of the sale when the Allanfauld pen from the MacGregor family’s Kilsyth-based flock, sold at £80,000, £38,000, £26,000 and £20,000. The top three prices are sons of last year’s Dalmally purchase, a £3500 Dalchirla, with the £80,000 seller being out of a ewe by £100,000 Elmscleugh. He sold in a two-way split to Alastair McArthur, Nunnerie, Elvanfoot, and the Dunlops at Elmscleugh, Dunbar.
Elmscleugh teamed up with Malcolm Coubrough, Whelphill, Biggar, to buy the pen number one, at £38,000. His dam is by £12,000 Dyke. Another bred this way made £26,000, to the Grahams at Craigdarroch, Sanquhar, and Mitchellslacks Farm, Thornhill, while another, by the £160,000 Dalchirla, sold at £20,000 to Ian Bond, Glen, Gatehouse of Fleet.
Second top price of the day came from the Barclays’ Harestone consignment, brought out by Robert Marshall and Tommy Paterson at Meikle Wartle, Inverurie. They secured a record price for the 150-ewe flock, when the pen leader, later named ‘Double Yolker’ due to the buyers both being egg producers, sold at £70,000, to Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn, Muirkirk, and the Campbell family, Glenrath, Peebles. He is by a £10,000 Midlock tup bought last year, out of a ewe by an £8000 Auchloy.
John Harkin enjoyed a flier of a trade for his Loughash sheep from Strabane, Northern Ireland, peaking at £60,000 for a son of a £24,000 Elmscleugh, which sold to the Midlock, Nunnerie and Elmscleugh flocks. From the same pen, a son of a different £24,000 Elmscleugh made £20,000 to Northern Ireland buyer Veronica Fullerton, while one by a £26,000 Elmscleugh made £10,000 to Ewen Macmillan, Lurg, Fintry.
Best for Jimmy and Donald MacGregor, Dyke, Milton of Campsie, was £42,000, paid by Willie Graham, Craigdarroch, Sanquhar; Angus Kennedy, Mitchellhill, Biggar, and Una Hodge, Kirkland, Kirkconnel, for a son of £17,000 Midlock.
Thomas Muirhead received the best price yet for his 200-ewe Orchilmore flock at Comrie, when his ram lamb sold at £20,000 early in the day. Sired by a son of £160,000 Elmscleugh, he is out of the Auldhouseburn-bred ewe which also produced a £15,000 seller last year. Buyers were the Dunlops of Elmscleugh, Dunbar; the Blackwoods at Dalblair, Muirkirk, and Robert Cockburn, Hill of Errol, Perth.
Also hitting £20,000, was one from John Murray, Crossflatt, Muirkirk, a son of £150,000 Auldhouseburn which sold to Ian Hunter, Dalchirla, Crieff; David Jackson, Pole, Loichgoilhead; and the Dunlops at Upper Wellwood, Muirkirk. Crossflatt sold others at £15,000 and £11,000, all by the same sire.
Other leading prices include £15,000 – Crossflatt (by £150,000 Auldhouseburn) to P Junor, R Flett & J MacGregor, Dyke; £15,000 – Elmscleugh (by £21,000 Auldhouseburn) to Auldhouseburn; £15,000 – Auldhouseburn (by £10,000 Nunnerie) to x5 NI buyers; £15,000 – High Staward (by £150,000 Auldhouseburn) to Auldhouseburn.
£14,000 – Glenrath (by £100,000 Nunnerie) to Kirkstead and S McClymont, Tinnis; £12,000 – High Staward (by £150,000 Auldhouseburn) to J Fegan & G Crawford.; £12,000 – Upper Wellwood (by £22,000 Auldhouseburn) to RJ Anderson & Son, Penchrise; £12,000 – The Rock (by £4800 Stoanbrack) to Stoanbrack & JJ Brannigan; £11,000 – Crossflatt (by £150,000 Auldhouseburn) to M Grant, D Harrison & Netherwood; £11,000 – Longcroft (by £20k Easter Happrew) to Cuil & Hartside; £11,000 – Connachan (by £160,000 Dalchirla) to Auchnafree, Dalchirla & third share kept; £11,000 – Tinnis (by £14,000 Allanfauld) to Ashcraig & Mount Benger; £10,000 – The Rock (by £35k Auldhouseburn) to R Hamilton & FDA McVicar.
