Three Texel ram lambs sold at six-figure prices at Thursday’s National show and sale at Lanark – two from Robert Cockburn’s Knap flock in Perthshire at 170,000gns and 100,000gns and another at 100,000gns from Jim Innes’ Strathbogie flock at Huntly.
Overall, 222 ram lambs averaged a record £5,311.25, verifying ‘confidence in the breed’, according to Texel Society chief executive John Yates, who added: “The Scottish National sale has proven itself as the elite sale for acquiring the best genetics that the Texel breed has to offer.”
Sellers certainly appear to be more selective over which lambs they take to Lanark, with the sale seeing 100 less entries compared to the previous year.
At the end of the day, 45 less were sold compared to the 267 sold at the 2022 sale, but averages were up by £500, with buyers willing to push their budgets in order to secure their pick of the day.
For Charlie Boden, who runs the Sportsmans flock in Cheshire, there were two lambs that caught his eye – full brothers Knap Grumpy and Knap General Lee from Robert Cockburn’s Errol-based flock.
They are sired by Haddo Falcon, a ram that Mr Cockburn had purchased for 9,000gns last year at Lanark.
The dam, meanwhile, is Knap Daisy Duke, which won the National Texel Show in 2021 and has previously bred sons to 16,000gns.
Mr Boden bought the pen number one, Knap General Lee, at 100,000gns, before surpassing that with Knap Grumpy, at 170,000gns.
It’s not the first time Mr Cockburn has sold at such heights – in 2014 he sold Knap Vicious Sid at 145,000gns, with Sportsmans also being in the consortium for that one, along with the Auldhouseburn and Cowal flocks.
He contract farms 320 acres at Hill of Errol, part of Errol Park Estate, where he is based with partner Dianne and their two children, running 35 Texel ewes, 160 Blackface ewes and a cross-bred flock of 400 ewes.
The other 100,000gns seller was the pre-sale show champion, Strathbogie Gypsy King, from Jim Innes, who runs a large-scale livestock and arable farming enterprise at Dunscroft, Huntly, including pedigree Texels, Suffolks, a 500-cow suckler herd and 1,200 sows.
A son of the 28,000gns Auldhouseburn Fancy Pants, out of a ewe by Milnbank Dance Monkey, this lamb, brought out by shepherd Michael Leggat, had stood reserve breed champion at the Royal Highland Show in June.
He sold to a team from Northern Ireland, including the judge, Richard Henderson, Ballynahone, along with Johnny Cubbit, Long Mountain; Alastair Gault, Forkins and Rodger Strawbridge, Tamnamoney.
A further 17 ram lambs made five-figure prices, with Andrew Clark’s Teiglum Goliath making the day’s fourth top at 65,000gns. Sired by Forkins Fancy, a ram bought jointly for 7500gns at Ballymena last year, he is out of a home-bred ewe by Wydden Ding Dong. He was knocked down to Robert Cockburn, spending some of his earlier earnings.
Two lambs sold at 42,000gns apiece – Auldhouseburn Ghost from Hugh and Alan Blackwood, which went to Eammon Vaughan, Partridge Nest, Staffordshire, and Ettrick Grey Goose, from Gordon and David Gray’s Selkirk-based flock, which sold to the Campbells’ Cowal flock and Nick Legge, Thornbury. The Blackwoods also sold Auldhouseburn Gazza at 36,000gns, with Robert Cockburn taking a third share, along with Kenny Pratt, Hilltop and Mark Priestley, Seaforde.
The reserve champion, Clarks Gray Goose, from David Clark, was the first of three lambs to make 30,000gns. He sold to the Ettrick and Procters flocks, while Hilltop Golden Eye, from Kenny Pratt’s flock at Peterculter, Aberdeen, sold at the same money, to four breeders from across the water, Barry Farrell, Oberstown; Alistair Breen, Drumderg; Robert Dunne, Kilduff and Terry Dolan. The other at 30,000gns was Clanfield Golden, from James Theyer, which went to three North-east flocks – Corskie, Milnbank and Uppermill.