Lanark Ram Lamb Sale

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Blackface sheep breeders had plenty to celebrate for the finale of the big ram sales at Lanark, when a phenomenal 28 lambs sold at five-figure prices complete with a £160,000 top, saw averages soar past last year’s record, to a new high of £8312.46 for 134.

Such was the demand for flashy lambs that averages soared £535 per head on the year, albeit for 21 fewer sold and a 73% clearance.

The event also saw Donald and Jimmy MacGregor, Dyke, Milton of Campsie, achieve a personal best, when their pen leader sold for £160,000. Surpassing their previous high of £75,000 for a shearling ram at Dalmally the previous week, the MacGregor’s £160,000 lamb sold four ways to Ian Campbell, Glenrath, Peebles and Muirkirk-based breeders, John Murray, Crossflatt and Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn. The MacGregors paid the remaining £40,000 to retain a quarter share.

Star attraction here was a son of a home-bred tup retained for breeding by the £17,000 Midlock lamb bought here in 2020. The dam is a ewe by a £70,000 Glenrath lamb – one of 600 Blackface females bred pure at Dyke which is also home to pedigree Texels and Limousin cattle.

The No 3 Dyke lamb by the same sire but bred from a ewe by a £2200 Dalwyne, made £32,000 selling to Rory Kerr, The Glen, Drymen; brothers Andrew and Ian Cullens, Dollarbank, Dollar; John and James Graham, Mains of Burnbank, Blairdrummond and Duncan MacGregor, Burnhead, Kilsyth. This bolstered the pen average to a colossal £41,040 for five.

On the debit side, Dyke bought a half share of the second top priced lamb at £85,000 from Kirstyn and Eoin Blackwood, who were also enjoying their best sale from the 1800 ewe flock at Dalblair, Muirkirk. Their No 1, is a son of the £13,000 Glenrath lamb bought in 2020 in partnership with Elmscleugh and Auldhouseburn, which also sired the £52,000 Dalblair lamb at Dalmally the previous week, with others to £32,000 and £14,000 last year. Dalblair paid the remaining £42,500 to retain a half share of this cracker bred from a ewe by a £28,000 Auldhouseburn.

Two other Dalblair lambs bred the exact same way attracted five-figure bids with the No 2 selling for £22,000 to Karol McElhinney, Glenmore Farms, Donegal. Dalblair secured the second top average selling four lambs at £29,750.

Near neighbour, John Murray, Crossflatt, was another to get in on the action, selling his pen leader for £65,000 to a bus load of breeders to include Danny Harrison, Mike Grant and Glenmore Farms, Ireland; Dalblair, the Dunlops, Upper Wellwood, Muirkirk and Archie and John MacGregor, Allanfauld, Kilsyth. For their money, they get a son of last year’s £125,000 Nunnerie lamb bought in partnership with High Staward and Elmscleugh, out of a ewe by a £32,000 Dalchirla.

More than financing that sixth share purchase, Allanfauld had a cracking day with lamb sales at £48,000, £22,000, £14,000 and £10,000. The former and No 1, a son of a £30,000 Nunnerie, is out of a ewe by a home-bred son of the £100,000 Elmscleugh lamb bought at Dalmally, and sold to Malcolm Coubrough, Hartside Farms, Lammington, Neil and Stuart Barclay, Harestone, Insch, with Allanfauld paying the remaining third to retain a share.

Willie Dunlop and sons Quintin and William, Elmscleugh, Dunbar, bought the £22,000 lamb, a son of the £16,000 Midlock lamb bought at Dalmally in partnership with Lurg in 2020, out of a ewe by a £5500 Elmscleugh.

There are more noted genetics behind the £14,000 Allanfauld lamb too which is a full brother to the £130,000 cashed here last year. He is by Allanfauld Strike – an ET brother to the £80,000 lamb sold in 2020 and a son of the £3500 Dalchirla – and bred from Lady Mac, a former National Show winner at Stirling by the £100,000 Elmscleugh lamb. Alan Smith, Wester Crosswoodhill, West Calder, was the final bidder.

That £130,000 lamb was the sire of the pen leader from Auldhouseburn which made £16,000 to Billy and Andrew Renwick, Blackhouse, Yarrow; Tommy and Tam Renwick, Williamhope, Clovenfords and Burncastle Farming, Lauder, managed by Alan Rogerson. The dam is a daughter of the £160,000 Elmscleugh.

Despite being one of the last lots sold, Auldhouseburn also sold at £52,000, £20,000 and £11,000. The two dearest were both sons of last year’s £82,000 Loughash lamb purchased here, with the former being bred from another £160,000 Elmscleugh-sired ewe. He was knocked down to Elmscleugh and Dyke.

Buying back some of their own genetics, John and Patrick Harkin, Loughash, Donemanna and Glenmore Farms, bought the £20,000 Auldhouseburn lamb, bred from a ewe by the £70,000 Harestone lamb.

On the other side of the coin, Loughash sold lambs at £30,000, £15,000 and £14,000, with the first two being sons of last year’s £100,000 lamb bred by the Harkins and purchased by Auldhouseburn, with a half share retained. He is out of a ewe by a £26,000 Auldhouseburn and was another to sell to Glenmore Farms.

Lawrence, Keiran and Michael McEldowney, Maghera, Northern Ireland, bought the £15,000 lamb bred from a ewe by a £26,000 Elmscleugh, with the £14,000 Loughash lamb, by a £24,000 Dalchirla and out of a ewe by an £11,000 Nunnerie, going out to work at Elmscleugh.

The Dunlops at Elmscleugh forked out a further £40,000 for the pen leader from the Wights at Midlock, Crawford. This was a ram lamb son of the £20,000 Dalwyne lamb bought last year at Dalmally bred from another ewe by the £100,000 Elmscleugh.

Just behind on £38,000, Richard Carruthers, Merkland, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, sold his highest priced lamb to date, to Auldhouseburn, who gets for his money, a son of last year’s £30,000 Auldhouseburn lamb sold at Dalmally to Silloans, Merkland and Blackhouse. The dam is a ewe by a home-bred son of a £15,000 Crossflatt retained for breeding.

Another by the same sire, from Blackhouse, made £16,000 selling to Alastair and David MacArthur, Nunnerie, Crawford,

OTHERLEADING prices

Ram lambs – £13,000 – S Blackwood, Greenside, Muirkirk, by an £11,000 Merkland, to E Macmillan, Lurg, Fintry.

£12,000 – Midlock, by a £40,000 Dyke, to H Brown, Birthwood, Coulter

£11,000 – Elmscleugh, by a £15,000 Dalchirla, to Tinnis; Blackhouse, by a £32,000 Dalblair, to J and F Burns, Craignell, New Galloway and C Phillips, Finglen, Draperstown; Auldhouseburn, by a £20,000 Merkland, to I McLarty, Little Port, St Fillans and R Hamilton, Balernock,

£10,000 – Allanfauld, by Allanfauld Strike, to Dyke; Dalblair, by a £13,000 Glenrath, to W Graham and Son, Craigdarroch, Sanquhar; W Lockhart, Culdoach, Kirkcudbright and DC and J Marshall, Gosland, Broughton, Biggar; C and C Harkin, The Rock, by a £10,000 Elmscleugh, to B Harkin, Moneygran, Northern Ireland.

£9000 – J Kay and Sons, Hartside, by a home-bred son of a £16,000 Dyke, to Tinnis; A Smith, Wester Crosswoodhill, by a Parkhall loan, to Hartside, Lammermuir; Elmscleugh, by a £15,000 Dalchirla to H Crawford, Glenhead Farms, Northern Ireland.

FLOCK averages

Farm (No) Top (£) Average

Tofthouse (3) 2800 1266.67

Aberuchill (3) 15,000 5600.00

Blackcraig (4) 8000 4362.50

Wester Crosswoodhill (3) 9000 3466.67

Dyke (5) 160,000 41,040.00

Burnhead (4) 3000 1287.50

The Rock (4) 10,000 3225.00

Elmscleugh (5) 11,000 7440.00

Gosland (3) 650 466.67

Netherwood (3) 3800 2500.00