Texels led trade at Kelso Ram Sales, securing the day’s top three prices of £29,000, £16,000 and £10,000, and continued to be the most numerous breed sold at the event, which saw an overall clearance rate of 85.5%.
Tups with good skins, shape and power were in big demand, but plainer types were harder to sell, according to Lawrie and Symington auctioneer Brian Ross, who sold the top two priced tups, at £29,000 and £16,000.
Topping the trade early in the day was a Texel shearling from Alan, Andrew and David Clark’s Garngour pen from Lesmahagow. First in the performance recorded show the evening prior to the sale, this one, Garngour Awesome, is by the 15,000gns Knock Yardsman – a tup that has already sired ram lambs up to 40,000gns for the flock – and out of a ewe by Castlecairn Vavavoom, which was also the dam of the 17,000gns Garngour Bullet, sold at Lanark last month.
This is the third time the Clarks have secured the top price at Kelso, but this year’s leader far surpassed their previous best shearling price of £11,000. A first prize winner at Biggar Show in July, Awesome sold at £29,000 to commercial producer Paul Slater, who runs more than 1200 ewes in Cheshire and sells 500-550 Texel and cross shearling rams annually.
Mr Slater commented: “I came looking for something special and I found that today. With the number of shearlings I sell, I need to keep at the top of the game and this tup will hopefully prove a big addition to my flock – he has length, style and width, as well as overall presence.”
The Clarks sold others by Knock Yardsman, also out of Vavavoom daughters, at £3800, to Esmor Evans, Maerdy and the Arnotts at Haymount, and £3600 to Dougie Fleming, Nisbet, Coulter.
In the same ring, Neil Harvey’s Blackadder consignment from Duns, sold to £16,000 – his best price to-date at Kelso. This shearling is one of the first crop of lambs by Wolfclyde Wawrinka, a tup bought for £1200 at Kelso. Out of a ewe by Douganhill Taggart, he sold to Iain Minto, Townhead, Dolphinton, Jim Gibb, Toftcombs, Biggar and James Orr, Wester Walston, Carnwath.
Another the same-way bred from Blackadder reached £6500, selling to Messrs Roots, Kilnford Croft, Castle Douglas.
Jonathan Watson enjoyed a flying trade for shearlings from his Brijon flock from Bowsden Moor, Berwick Upon Tweed. Top of the pen, at £10,000, was the champion in the Ring 5 show, a son of Pant Wolf, out of a ewe by Grey Peel Rambo. He sold to Ben Marsden, Liley Farm, Penistone, Sheffield.
Two others from the same flush sold at £6500 and £6000, selling to the Quicks at Loosebeare, Devon and James and Thomas Whiteford, Tercrosset, Brampton, respectively.
Best for Peter and Lynn Gray’s Scrogtonhead lot was a £7000 bid for a shearling son of Clinterty Yuga Khan, out of a ewe by Teiglum Thunder, which sold to Malcolm Coubrough, Hartside, Lamington.
The Wight family’s Midlock consignment attracted plenty of attention, despite being last through the ring. They peaked at £6200, for another by Clinterty Yuga Khan, out of a ewe by Teiglum Thunder, which sold to J B Pate and Son, Toxside Farm, Gorebridge. Other sons of Yuga Khan from Midlock sold at £4800, to Alistair McArthur, Nunnerie, Biggar; £4500 to Dougie Fleming, Nisbet, Coulter, and £4000 to Mark Ireland, Orchard House, Clitheroe.
At £5500, Norman Douglas, Catslackburn, Yarrow, took home a shearling by Haddo Whisky Galore, out of a ewe by Tamnamoney Tuborg Gold, from Steven Renwick’s Craig Douglas consignment.
Top for Archie and John MacGregor, Allanfauld, Kilsyth, was £3800, for a Garngour Yeltsin son, which sold to John More, Townhead, Arnprior, while another, out of the same ewe by Cambwell Uist, but sired by Knap You’re The Man, sold at £3600 to Newtonfield Farm, Allonby, Maryport.
Also making £3800 was one from Angus Kennedy, Mitchellhill, a son of Mitchellhill Ya Dancer, out of a ewe by Kingledores Turbo, which sold to Midlock.
Also in the shearlings, one at £3000 from the Arnotts at Haymount, sold to John Elliot, Roxburgh Mains
Leading the lamb trade at £5000, was Strawfrank Balvenie, a Cambwell Aristocrat son, out of a daughter of Strathbogie Usher, from Allan Campbell’s flock at Carstairs. He sold to the Knox family at Haddo, Fyvie, Turriff.
At £4600, Robbie Wilson, Milnbank, Turriff, sold a lamb by Holylee Acrobat, out of a ewe bought from Archie Hamilton and sired by Sportsmans Unimog, to Andrew Thomas, for his Brynmeini flock in Wales.
Averages: 844 registered Texel shearlings, £882.73; 118 registered Texel ram lambs, £643.81.
Leading averages:
Shearlings
Flock (no) Top Average
Garngour (10) £29,000 £4225
Midlock (10) £6200 £2945
Blackadder (15) £16,000 £2703
Craig Douglas (5) £5500 £2076
Allanfauld (6) £3800 £1933
Bowsden Moor (29) £10,000 £1420
Harestone (3) £1900 £1400
Loosebeare (6) £2200 £1392
Blackhouse (6) £2600 £1242
Artnagullion (10) £2600 £1185
Greenall (17) £2800 £1126
Roxburgh Mains (31) £2800 £1097
Haymount (26) £3000 £1094
Scrogtonhead (32) £7000 £1075
Mitchellhill (8) £3800 £1044
Cambwell (12) £2600 £1037
Ettrick (15) £2100 £1010
Lambs
Knockem (4) £2500 £1387.50
Milnbank (15) £4600 £1040
