A steady trade and a five-figure top price ensured a successful Perth Ram Society sale of north-type Blackface rams at Stirling Mart.
It was the reserve champion from the pre-sale show – a shearling ram from Matthew Hamilton, Woolfords, West Calder, that led the trade, selling at £20,000.
By a home-bred son of a £4000 Woolfords, he sold to the Paterson family, Craigneich, Crieff, who were selling both north and south type Blackfaces, achieving a top of £3800.
The Woolfords team sold another shearling at £7000, a son of a £3500 Achdregnie, which went to the Duncans at Achdregnie, Glenlivet; the Smiths at Scarhill, Glenkindie; and Scott Robertson, Avonside flock, Dufftown.
The Hamiltons then bought the second top price at £9,000, which came from Cadogan Estates’ Auchnacloich flock at Amulree, managed by Archie and Ben Mackinnon.
He is by a home-bred son of an £8000 Hillhead of Mornish.
Shearlings from the Smiths’ Scarhill flock at Knowehead, Glenkindie, sold to £8000 for a son of an £18,000 Calla, which was also knocked down to the Woolfords flock.
From the same pen, another by the £18,000 Calla sire made £5000, to Northern Ireland buyers Owen McEvoy and M McAleer.
Best for Stephen Duncan’s Achdregnie flock, based at Glenlivet, was a £5000 bid for the pre-sale show champion, a shearling by a £550 Cathal Breslin ram.
He sold to G Breslin, Donegal, Ireland.
Others from Achdregnie made £4500, to David Baillie, Calla, Carnwath, and £3500, to Conway Bros, Omagh.
Ram lambs peaked at £8000 for one from the Shearer family’s Hillhead of Morinsh consignment from Glenlivet.
That one, a son of a £6000 Eastmill, out of a ewe by a £3000 Achdregnie, sold to the judge Phil Stewart, Bomakelloch, Keith.
Lambs from the Baillies’ Calla pen sold up to £5000 to M Smyth, Macosquin, Coleraine, while one from Woolfords made £3800 to Sam Adams, Broughshane, Ballymena.
*At the sale of south-type Blackfaces, 593 shearling rams averaged £1121, while 111 ram lambs averaged £955.
Top price was £16,000 for a shearling from Willie and Ewan Bennie, Merkins, Gartocharn.
A son of a £6000 Nunnerie, he sold to Malcolm Coubrough, Hartside, Biggar, and Alastair MacArthur, Nunnerie, Elvanfoot.
At £14,000, the Dunlop family, Elmscleugh, Dunbar, sold a son of a £32,000 Elmscleugh, to Robert Cockburn, Hill of Errol, Errol; Allan Wight, Midlock, Crawford, and the MacArthurs at Nunnerie.
Best for Ian Hunter’s Dalchirla consignment from Crieff, was £8000, for a shearling by a home-bred son of £45,000 Nunnerie, to Malcolm Coubrough, Hartside, and Billy Renwick, Blackhouse, Yarrow.
Another from Dalchirla made £6500 to Robert Flett, Crackaig, Inverness, and PA Junor, Ballachraggan, Torness.
Also selling north was one at £8000 from Alan McClymont, Kirkstead, Yarrow, a son of a £14,000 Glenrath, to Kenny and John Matheson, Milton of Aberarder, and Robert Mackenzie, The Glebe, Boat of Garten.
Stephen Duncan’s south type Livet pen peaked at £6500, for one by an £11,000 Craigdarroch, selling to S Robson, Toft House, Otterburn, with another at £5000 to Billy Graham, Craigdarroch, Sanquhar.
South type ram lambs topped at £15,000, from Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn, Muirkirk.
Sired by £160,000 Dyke, that one went to David Morrison, Dalwyne, Girvan.
The Taylor family at Dall, Killin, paid £11,000 for a ram lamb by an £8000 Dyke, from the Rorisons’ Clonrae flock.
Brothers Lewis and Ryan Smith, Towiemore, Keith, topped at £6500 for a son of a £13,000 Glenrath, out of an Auldhouseburn ewe, to Auchnafree Estate, Retford, and the Marbrack flock.