Few markets ooze the atmosphere that UA's Blackface ram sale at Dalmally has and this year was no exception, with the event not only hosting a magical £100,000 bid but also nine five-figure prices.
With the 2015 sale witnessing a new breed record of £160,000, keeping up with last year’s sale averages was never going to be easy.
However, new buyers from all over the UK saw shearling averages rise almost £50 per head and for 18 more sold. Overall, 525 shearlings averaged £791.66 against 507 at £746 in 2015, while 168 lambs cashed in at £2033, compared to £2274 for the same number last year.
Setting the trade alight this year at £100,000 was a ram lamb from Willie Dunlop and sons, Quintin and William’s Elmscleugh consignment, from Innerwick, Dunbar. A son of a £20,000 Midlock bought last year, out of a ewe by a £12,000 Gass, he sold to six flocks – Jimmy and Donald MacGregor, Dyke, Milton of Campsie; Archie and John MacGregor, Allanfauld, Kilsyth; Alastair and David Macarthur, Nunnerie, Elvanfoot; Allan Wight, Midlock, Crawford; Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn; and John Murray, Crossflatt, both Muirkirk.
The Dunlops also received £25,000 for a home-bred son of a £24,000 Elmscleugh, out of a ewe by a £16,000 Crossflatt. Forking out the cash were neighbouring breeders, John Hamilton, Aikengall, and Hector Macaskill, Woodhall, both Innerwick, and Peter McDiarmid, Shenlarich, Lawers, Aberfeldy.
Sons of last year’s record priced £160,000 Dalchirla also proved popular, with sales at £18,000, £15,000 and £12,000 from John Murray, Crossflatt.
The dearest, bred from a ewe by a £24,000 Elmscleugh, was bought by a quintet of breeders – Rory Kerr, The Glen, Drymen; Midlock; Dyke; Duncan MacGregor, Burnhead, Kilsyth; and brothers Andrew and Ian Cullens, Dollarbank, Dollar.
Crossflatt’s first lamb, out of Crossflatt Spectre’s dam by a £26,000 Crossflatt, made £15,000 to Richard Carruthers, Merkland, Thornhill, Dumfries-shire; his brother, John Carruthers, Silloans, Rochester; David Murray, Lurgan, Aberfeldy; and Willie and Andrew Walker, Crammie, Glenprosen.
Two shearlings secured five-figure prices, with the dearest at £21,000 being an entry from Duncan MacGregor, Burnhead, Kilsyth, who was producing his best ever sheep sale following a £20,000 sale for a lamb many years ago. Ewen Macmillan, Lurg, Fintry; Ian Hunter, Dalchirla; and Tay and Torridon Estates, North Amulree, Dunkeld, forked out the cash for this tup by a £16,000 Nunnerie out of a Dyke Travis daughter – one of 400 Blackie ewes run pure at Burnhead.
Read the full Dalmally report in this week's issue of The Scottish Farmer, out October 22.
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