Lanark Shearling Sale 2021

LAWRIE & SYMINGTON - LANARK SHEARLINGS

Averages:

Ring 1 – 237 shearlings rams, £3475.74 (+£301.74 for one less). Ring 2 – 139 shearling rams, £495.40 (+£12.43 for 11 more).

The breed record for a shearling ram was equalled at the two-day Blackface ram sale at Lanark, when team Midlock sold their pen leader for a whopping £100,000.

The tup, from father Allan, son Allan and his son, Ben Wight, Midlock, Crawford, more than doubled their previous best of £48,000 – paid twice – and equalled the first £100,000 shearling sale paid here in 2019 for a ram from Alastair and David MacArthur, Nunnerie.

This five star ram sold in a four-way split to Nunnerie; Ian Campbell, Glenrath, Peebles; and Ian Hunter, Dalchirla, Crieff, with the Wights paying £25,000 to retain an equal share.

It was Nunnerie genetics that were behind this second six-figure sale, with the sire, a £45,000 Nunnerie shearling ram bought at Dalmally in 2019 in a three-way split by Midlock, Dalchirla and Dyke, being responsible for the £48,000 Midlock and a £14,000 Dalchirla shearling sold the previous week at Dalmally, to name but a few of the big sellers attributed to him. The dam is by a £24,000 Connachan – a tup that also bred many high priced tups for his owners, Midlock and Dalchirla.

Midlock’s No 2, which was a twin to the £48,000 shearling sold at Dalmally, being bred from a show ewe by Hawkeye – a home-bred son of a £35,000 Dalchirla lamb – then made £17,000 selling to Malcolm Coubrough and son, also Malcolm, Hartside, Lamington.

Another from the 1250-ewe flock at Midlock realised £13,000, selling to Glenrath, and Willie and Euan Bennie, Merkins, Gartocharn. His pedigree features a home-bred son of an £8000 Dyke known as The Stag, onto a ewe by a 9000gns Finglen.

Jimmy and Donald MacGregor, Dyke, Milton of Campsie, then went to £9000 for a Midlock son of the £60,000 Dalchirla bought at Dalmally, in 2019, bred from a ewe by a £25,000 Crossflatt.

Midlock also teamed up with Dalchirla to buy the second shearling from the MacGregors, from Dyke, Milton of Campsie for £40,000.  He is by a £17,000 Midlock lamb bought at Lanark, in 2019, and bred from the champion show ewe at the 2020 stockjudging at Stirling.

Dyke’s pen leader, by the same £45,000 Nunnerie shearling as the sale leader, made £12,000 selling to Duncan MacGregor, Burnhead, Queenzieburn. His dam is by an £11,000 Greenside.

Two other shearling rams made £40,000, with the first being a son of the £100,000 Nunnerie shearling sold here in 2019, from Ian Campbell, Glenrath, Peebles, brought out by Steven Renwick and Ross Stevenson. He is bred from a ewe by a £12,000 Dalchirla shearling and sold to Dalchirla and Nunnerie.

Virtually all of the Glenrath shearlings were by the same sire, with the No 4 then making £14,000 in a four-ways spit to Scott and Alan Lambie, Ashcraig, Selkirk; Billy and Andrew Renwick, Blackhouse, Yarrow; John and Richard Wood, Kingledores, Tweedsmuir; and Burncastle Farming Co, Lauder, managed by Alan Rogerson. He is bred from an £85,000 Elmscleugh-sired ewe.

More than financing that transaction, Burncastle – which is ‘herded by James Brady and Ben Carter – sold the final £40,000 shearlings. This big lad is an ET brother to the £16,000 shearling ram sold at Stirling two weeks previous being the result of flush from a ewe that bred a shearling ram at £7000 in 2019.

She is by a home-bred son of a £21,000 Glenrath, while the sire was the £42,000 Glenrath shearling sold here in 2017. Forking out the cash were Alan McClymont and sons, Sam and Oli, Kirkstead, Yarrow, and Jim Pate and sons, Gordon and Neil, Moorfoot, Gorebridge.

The first five-figure transaction came within the first 15 minutes of the sale, when Archie and John MacGregor, Allanfauld, Kilsyth, sold The Bandicoot, for £32,000, to Blackhouse, Burncastle, and Sam McClymont and sons, William and Scott, Tinnis, Yarrow. Their pen leader is by a £3500 Dalchirla shearling bought at Dalmally in 2019, which sired last year’s £80,000 Allanfauld lamb, and bred from a ewe by Bullseye – a home-bred son of a £25,000 Crossflatt retained for breeding.

Allanfauld, Dyke and Midlock, then teamed up to buy a Nunnerie shearling from Alastair and David MacArthur, at £30,000. He is from the first crop of sons by The Unit, a home-bred son of a £6000 Elmscleugh retained for breeding and bred from a ewe by a £20,000 Midlock shearling.

While most breeders enjoyed a cracking sale, few would celebrate it more than Scott and Alan Lambie, Ashcraig, when their best sold for £26,000 – more than six times higher than their previous high of £4200 in 2005.

Selling at this price for the 500-ewe flock run by the father and son duo – a freelance auctioneer and contract farmer at Flemington, Peebles, respectively – was a son of a £3800 Elmscleugh bought in Stirling in 2018, that has bred sons to £3000.

Messrs Hamilton, Crosswoodhill, West Calder; George Irving, Mount Benger; and Alan McClymont, who manages Philiphaugh Estate’s Dryhope enterprise at Yarrow, were the final bidders on this shearling, which was bred from a ewe by a £5000 Mount Benger.

Shearling rams from William and Billy Graham, Craigdarroch, Sanquhar, regularly hit the headlines and this year was no exception with sales at £17,000, £11,000 and £8500.

Dearest was the pen’s No 4, a son of a £10,000 Allanfauld shearling bred from a ewe by a £10,000 Allanfauld lamb. He was knocked down to North of England breeders, G and S Paxton, Greenleighton, Longwitton, Morpeth, and W Walton, of Tofthouse and Dunns Cottages, Otterburn.

Selling for £11,000 was Craigdarroch’s second shearling, a son of a £38,000 Dyke shearling bought here in 2019, out of a ewe by a £17,000 Dyke. Buying back some of their own genetics, he sold to Jimmy and Donald MacGregor, with Stephen Duncan and his father, also Stephen, Livet, Glenlivet, taking a half share.

In an all McClymont deal, Sam, William and Scott McClymont, Tinnis, Yarrow, sold their best for £15,000 to Colin McClymont, Cuil, Newton Stewart. This big boy is by a £30,000 Dyke shearling ram and bred from a ewe by a £1600 Whelphill.

Steven Mackay also had a cracking day for his first year selling as part of FT Walton’s Dudlees Farm, Flotterburn, when he got £11,000 for a shearling son of a £3200 Allanfauld shearling bought at Dalmally in 2019. The dam, one of 1300 ewes in the flock, is by a £6000 Parkhall. He was knocked down to John and Iain Renwick, Corsebank, Sanquhar.

Top price for Alan McClymont, Kirkstead, Yarrow, was £9000 paid for a son of a £14,000 Cuil shearling bought at Newton Stewart, bred from a ewe by a £24,000 Dyke. He sold to the Ramsays of Milnmark, Dalry.

Top price in Ring 2 was £2200 from Bo Brown and Ben Cluckie selling for the first time off their Lanarkshire-based Waterhead unit, to Lochryan Farm Partners, High Croach, Stranraer. Their cracker is by a £5500 Nunnerie and bred from a High Croach Irn Bru dam.

Just behind on £1900, Dougie Fleming, Nisbet, Coulter, sold a son of a £2400 Elmscleugh out of a Midlock ewe, to Gary Thornborrow, Fruid Farming, Tweedsmuir.

OTHER LEADING prices

Shearling rams – £8500 Williamhope, by a £26,000 Williamhope to WS Robson, Yatesfield, Otterburn; Craigdarroch, by a £14,000 Dyke, to Dudlees and RS MacKay, Westhills.

£7500 – Burncastle, by a £42,000 Glenrath to C and B McMicking, Miltonise, New Luce. £6000 – High Staward, by a £150,000 Auldhouseburn, to R Dixon, Cowburn, Lockerbie.

£5500 – Tinnis by a £14k Allanfauld, to S McIntosh, Borthwickshiels, Hawick; Burncastle, by a £42,000 Glenrath, to G and A Shearer, Croughly, Tomintoul.

FLOCK averages

Ring 1

Ring 2

Auctioneers: Lawrie and Symington.