THERE was a runaway leader at the North of England Blackface ram sale at the breed’s birthplace, Hexham, on Monday, when a shearling from Peter Turnbull was the only ram to break the five-figure barrier when it was knocked down for £12,000.

Demand was reportedly high in the run up to the sale with both breeders and commercial producers alike in the search of new rams, and the proof in the pudding was the large crowds present at the ringside and the fact the average for shearlings levelled at £897 against £799 last year.

Making that top price to triple Peter and son, Jack’s previous best of £4000 from their Shepherd’s Croft flock was a son of a loaned Wanwood Hill ram that went on to realise £16,000 when sold to Kirkstead and Stewartshields at Lanark last year. The dam of this second prize ram, which also won the tup lamb class at the Great Yorkshire last year, is a ram that sold for £3800 to Greyside. This lad, whose bidding opened at £5000, was used as a lamb himself and goes to work at Yatesfield for Selby Robson.

The Shepherd’s Croft flock also welcomed a £2600 bid from Messrs Walton, Greyside, for another shearling, and set an impressive average of £5200 for three shearlings. Among the first crop of lambs by a £5000 Carrick shared with Townfoot, of which the best son has been retained, this first prize shearling from this year’s Great Yorkshire is out of a ewe by an £800 Tecket.

Fresh from their success at Hawes last week when they sold a Bluefaced Leicester ram lamb for £20,000, Andrew and Caroline Hunter had more to celebrate when they sold five rams from their Carrick and The Steel flocks for £2000 or above. 

Dearest at £4200 was their second prize winner from last year’s National show from The Steel. He is among the first crop and one of nine rams forward by a £12,000 Toft House, a ram that has bred exceptionally well with all females retained, while his mother is by the privately bought Horseholm tup known as The Lunatic. Placed fifth in his class at the pre-sale show, this lad has already proved his worth at home with ewe lambs kept for breeding, and heads to a new home at Grindon Hill to work for Philip Teasdale.

The same Toft House sire was behind five of the top prices from the husband and wife duo’s Carrick flock, meaning the ram’s first crop has grossed more than £20,000. Tops here when sold to Andrew Murray, Stell Green, for £3500 is bred from a ewe by a £9000 Horseholm from the 1600 ewes run between the two flocks ‘herded by Kevin Ridley.

The exact same breeding – the £12,000 Toft House on to £9000 Horseholme-sired ewes – proved successful as Messrs Carruthers, Peel a Hill, bought one for £3400, with another selling to Dennis Yeats, Close a Burn, for £2400 and yet another making £2000 when sold two ways to the Wanwood Partnership, Wanwood Hill, and the Murrays, Sewingshields.

Carrick also welcomed £3000 from Philip Teasdale, Grindon Hill, for the third prize shearling, the dearest yet by an £8000 Wanwood Hill and again out of a ewe by a £9000 Horseholme.

Securing the third best price of the day was a shearling from the Townfoot flock belonging to the Raine family – Robert and Jackie together with daughter Rachel, who is secretary of the North of England branch of the Blackface Sheep Breeders’ Association. Their leader is the only son to sell from Townfoot by the £5000 Carrick shared with Shepherd’s Croft, from which females have been retained, while his mother is by a home-bred son of a £2400 Sewingshields, a ram which produced a £10,000 sale for the 320-ewe flock back in 2010. Forking out the cash was George Famelton who takes him to work at Horseholme.

The Raines saw their next in sell to Ruth Mitcheson, Bolam Lake House, Belsay, for £2500. His pedigree includes a home-bred son of the Lanark-bought £4800 Kirkstead, also shared with Peter Turnbull, on to a ewe by a £1450 Shepherd’s Croft.

The Murray lads, Angus and his son Jamie, chairman of the North of England branch, saw their best four sell for £3600, £2500 and £2000 twice. The first three are all the second lot of sons to sell by the £9000 Wanwood Hill which bred the flock’s £2200 ram last year and whose sons have all sold above £1000. Knocked down in a two-way split to Robert Mackay, Bollsmoor Park, and Stuart Robson, Toft House, for £3600 was the winner of the hogg class at the stockjudging competition in the spring, which is out of a ewe by an £8000 Nilston Rigg and was used at home last year.

The next two were bred the exact same way and included the show champion at £2500 which also sold two ways, this time to Joe and Philip Walton of the Wanwood Partnership, Wanwood Hill, and Charlie Halbert, Greenhead.

Willie Walton, Penpeugh, paid £2000 for the next from Sewingshields.

Also making £2000 for Sewingshields was the first to sell by a £12,500 Toft House from the flock of 600 ewes. He heads to work at Langholm for the Craig Farming Company.

The second last on offer from Selby Robson’s Yatesfield flock was his dearest when Neil Robson, Townshields, and Peter Turnbull, Shepherd’s Croft, paid £3000 between them. His is by the £5500 Horseholm bought back in 2016.

George Famelton saw the dearest from his 400-ewe Horseholm flock get snapped up by John Carr and his son, also John, at Camphill, for £2800. Bred from a Horseholme ewe, this shearling is by a £6000 Toft House bought two years previously.

Peter Turnbull, Shepherd’s Croft, and Andrew Murray, Stell Green, then teamed up to pay £2800 for a shearling from Willie, Faye and Ryan Walton’s Penpeugh flock, which is by a Shepherd’s Croft sire.

The first crop to sell by a £3200 Horseholm tup from Andrew Murray’s Stell Green flock more than returned his purchase price, with the dearest at £2600 selling to James Herdman, Edlingham Newtown.

The very first ram in the ring set the pace when Neil Robson saw his second prize Scotch-type shearling, a son of a Wanwood Hill ram from his Townshields flock, sell to Messrs Ewart, Craig Farming Co, Langholm, for £2000.

The first of four rams to make £2000 came from the Shitlington Hall flock from Melvin Ridley and sons, Kevin and Stephen. Out of a ewe by a £3100 Chapel House, his sire is a £700 Chapel House which also sired the flock’s best at £1500 last year. The buyer was Philip Walton, Troughend.