Judge Bill Cameron, Grange, Keith, a buyer for Pickstock Foods, Telford, and Farmers Fresh, Kenilworth, was most impressed by the quality of prime lambs forward.
Mr Cameron, who buys 300-400 finished lambs per week at livestock sales in Aberdeenshire, said it was a great show for quality throughout.
“I has been a tremendous show of prime lambs and fantastic to see so many young people exhibiting. I was looking for well finished, good shaped lambs that were a pair and the champion winners were just that. They looked identical and handled the same way with a good amount of cover on them.”
Taking all the plaudits was a pair of home-bred seven-eighths Beltex cross lambs from William and David Moir, Cairness Home Farm, Fraserburgh.
May-born, the ewe and wedder lamb duo are by a 2000gns Culsh sire bought at Carlisle in 2021 which also bred the brothers’ butchers’ champions here last year. They scaled 45kg and later sold for £320 per head to the judge.
Adding to the celebrations, the Moirs also landed the Young Farmers' championship for a third consecutive year and reserve in the butchers' section.
The former, a pair of black Beltex cross lambs are by a home-bred sire and later sold for the top price of £350 per head to J Gordon and Co, Waterside, Forbes. They passed the weighbridge at 45kg.
The brothers’ reserve butchers’, Beltex cross lambs by the same Culsh ram, weighed in at 44kg and sold for £180.
Texel cross ewe lambs shown by John and June Brown, Hilton of Culsh, New Deer, bagged the reserve overall. The couple who were exhibiting four pairs of lambs from the 600-ewe flock and took two first and two second prize rosettes, saw their best sell for £200 to the judge. They scaled 52.5kg and are by the top breeding pure and commercial breeding stock ram, Canllefaes Delight.
Last year’s overall winners, the Smith family from Drumnahive, Kildrummy, – Susan and daughters Emma (18) and Laura (16) and son Neil (14) – were also in the tickets, winning the reserve butchers’ honours.
Their April-born Beltex cross ewe lambs passed over the weighbridge at 42.5kg each and later made £200 per head to John M Munro butchers, Dingwall.
Laura also won the runner-up rosette in the Young Farmers’ for her second year competing, with a similarly-bred pair of lambs that scaled 46.5kg. This ewe and wedder lamb duo sold for £180 each.
Overall, 104 lambs sold to average 329p per kg or £153.13 per head.
Leading Awards
Prime lamb pairs – Continental – Lightweight – 1 and champion, Cairness Home Farm, Belt X, 45kg, £320; 2, W and J Brown, Hilton of Culsh, Tex X, 47kg, £160; 3, G Morrison, Balloch Road, Keith, Belt X 44kg, £150. Heavyweight – 1 and reserve, Hilton of Culsh, 52.5kg, £200; 2, Messrs Smith, Drumnahive, Belt X, 47.5kg, £165; 3, S and J Livestock, New Deer, 50.5kg, £165.
Half-bred/Mule – 1, C Muir, Honeyneuk, HB, 47.5kg, £125.
Down cross – 1, R Wilkie, Tillyboy, Suff X, 44.5kg, £150; 2, Hilton of Culsh, Suff X, 53.5kg,; 3, Cairness Home Farm, Suff X, 45kg, £140.
Cheviot – 1, 2 and 3, Little Muddy Lumphart, 54.5kg, 54.5kg and 49kg, £148, £138 and £135.
Blackface – 1 and 2, SW Robertson, Conval Street, Dufftown, 49.5kg, 40kg, £135, £110; 3, Tillyboy, 42.5kg, £110.
Charollais – 1, Hilton of Culsh, 54kg, £180; 2, Cairness Home Farm, 48kg, £140.
Butchers lambs – Lightweight – 1 and champion butchers’ Drumnahive, Belt X, 42.5kg, £200; 2 and reserve, Cairness Home Farm’s Belt X, 44kg, £180; 3, Tillyboy, 46kg, £155. Heavyweight – 1, Cairness Home Farm, 46.5kg; 2, H and J Stuart, Belnoe, 50kg, £185; 3, S and J Livestock, 53.5kg, £150.
Young Farmers – Lightweight – 1 and YFC champion, William and David Moir, Cairness, 44.5kg, £350; 2, James Lowe, South Tarwathie, 41kg, £155; 3, Sally Glennie, Burnside Keig, 43kg, £152. Heavyweight – 1 and reserve YFC, Laura Smith, Drumnahive, 46.5kg, £180; 2, Finlay Hunter, West Cairnhill, 50kg, £160; 3, James Lowe, 48.5kg, £175.
Untrimmed – Native – 1, Tillyboy, 55kg, £138; 2, Cairness Home Farm, 50.5kg, £135; 3, SW Robertson, Conval Street, Duffton, £130. Continental – 1 and 2 Cairness Home Farm, 43kg, 46.5kg, £158, £148; 3, Tillyboy, 47kg, £145.
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