Ayr Ram Sale

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AYR RAM SALE

Averages: 187 shearling rams, £1549.94 (+£272.15 for 22 fewer); 22 ram lambs £2853.63 (+£1163.63 for 17 fewer).

Despite torrential rain, flooded roads and several parts of the west of Scotland being inaccessible, Blackface rams met a cracking trade at Ayr, where averages improved in both the shearling ram and tup lamb sections.

With ram lambs peaking at £18,000 and shearlings selling to £14,000, coupled with another four at five-figure prices, there was an air of optimism that prevailed from the very start.Gregor)

“It was a good show of commercial tups and breeders’ rams that were easier to sell than first anticipated. The top end was a joy to sell,” said Craig Wilson auctioneer, Drew Kennedy.

“Breeders were keen to invest and there were a lot more Irish buyers forward compared to previous years, so it was a sound sale with a good atmosphere from the very start.”

Topping the sale at £18,000 was one of the last entries sold – a tup lamb from Jim and Fiona Burns’ 300-ewe flock from Craignell, New Galloway.acGregor)

Their pen leader, a son of an £11,000 Merkland tup lamb bought at Lanark in 2021 in partnership with Blackcraig and Greenside, is bred from a ewe by a £7000 Auldhouseburn. Buying back some of their own genetics, he sold to Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn, Muirkirk.

Four shearlings hit the magical five-figure mark, with the dearest at £14,000 from Colin and Angus McClymont’s 400-ewe flock from Cuil, Newton Stewart.

Pen leader from Milnmark sold for £13,000 (Photograph: Catherine MacGregor)

Topping their sale was a tup by a £9000 Elmscleugh lamb bought with Drannandow, at Dalmally in 2021 while the dam is by a £7000 Dalhabboch. First at Dumfries Show, this lad sold jointly to Willie Dunlop and sons Quintin and William, Elmscleugh, Dunbar, and Sam McClymont, and sons William and Scott, Tinnis, Yarrow.

Two hit the £13,000 mark with the first being the pen leader from Jimmy and Kirsten Wallace, Fingland, who enjoyed a cracking trade for their Dalry, Castle Douglas-based flock, selling nine at £3409 – the lead flock average.

Most of the top sellers from this 650-strong ewe flock were sons of an £8000 Dalchirla lamb bought at Dalmally in 2021 in partnership with Aberuchill Estate, including the dearest. He is bred from a ewe by a £10,000 Madrissa that also produced the £5000 shearling sold last year to the Ramsays at Milnmark.

Final bidders on the £13,000 tup were John and Iain Finlay, Blackcraig, Corsock; Gerard McGinn, Chirmorrie, Barrhill, with the Wallaces paying the remaining third to retain a share.

Susan Archibald and her father Gavin Campbell, Larg Farm, Creetown, bought the fourth Fingland shearling at £5500. This was another by the £8000 Dalchirla but bred from a ewe by a £13,000 Glenrath.

Culdoach's sales leader made £10,000 (Photograph: Catherine MacGregor

Matching that £13,000 sale was the No. 1 from Ramsay’s Milnmark pen also from Dalry, Castle Douglas. Their sales leader, a son of a £10,000 Cuil bought here in 2021, out of a ewe by a £9000 Grimmet, was knocked down to the Patons, Craig, Straiton.

Two other Milnmark shearlings sold at £4500 each, to include another by the £10,000 Cuil, purchased by Norman Hurcombe, Lagafater Farms.

The other, by a £30,000 Elmscleugh, was purchased by Andrew Kay, Knockeen, Barr.

Milnmark genetics were also behind a personal best from Danny Hair’s 530-pure Blackface flock from Drumbreddan, Stranraer, which sold at £12,000 to Tommy Renwick and son Tam, Williamhope, Clovenfords, Galashiels.

Almost doubling his previous best of £7000, was a shearling son of a £2800 Milnmark, bred from a ewe by a home-bred son of a £6500 High Staward.

Despite an early calling, the Mitchell’s Little Larg consignment from New Luce, sold for £9000 for a shearling ram got by semen from the £15,000 High Staward, gifted to them by Auldhouseburn. His dam is also bred from frozen semen, being sired by a £24,000 Elmscleugh. The tup was sold jointly to Aberuchill Estate, Comrie, managed by Craig Paterson and Ewen Macmillan, Lurg, Fintry.

Another Little Larg shearling by the same sire made £3600 to Joe Dickson.k

Andrew Kay, Knockeen, also had an early calling but was rewarded with an £8000 shearling sale for a son of a £5000 Allanfauld bought at Lanark in 2021, out of a ewe by a £2200 Midlock. He was purchased by Drannandow Farms, managed by David Ferguson and Jim McEwan, Newton Stewart.

Financing some of that purchase, Drannandow Farms took £4500 from Andrew Kay and sons Robert and Andrew, Gass, Straiton, and Milnmark, for a shearling by a £2200 Drannandow tup sold last year by a £3200 Hartside, Lammermuir. He is out of a ewe by a £10,000 Knockdon.

It was certainly a day to remember for the Hannahs too – Rob and Karen, son Robert and daughter Kayleigh, who run just 30 ewes at High Balyett, Stranraer – when they sold their dearest shearling to date at £7500, another at £5000 and a lamb at £4500.

Their top shearling, a son of a Drumbreddan tup used on loan by a £7000 Drumbreddan, is sired by the same ram that bred the £7000 lamb sold last year from High Balyett. The dam, a show ewe is by a £2200 Dyke. He headed home with Robert McTurk, Barlaes, Dalry, Castle Douglas.

Selling at £5000 to Joe Dickson, was a son of a £6000 Cuil, bred from a ewe by a £1000 Cairnerzean.

Hugh Stewart, Upper Kidson, Eddleston, Peebles, bought the £4500 lamb from the Hannahs. His pedigree features a £3500 Gass ram bought at Stirling onto a ewe by a £2200 Dyke.

While fewer lambs sold, those that did were well up to the mark, with William Lockhart, Culdoach, Kirkcudbright, selling his best for £10,000, jointly to High Balyett and Barlaes.

Sired by a home-bred son of a £5000 High Staward retained for breeding and second in his class at Dumfries Show, this lamb is out of a ewe by a £14,000 Auldhouseburn.

Thomas Muirhead’s Orchilmore flock from Comrie, was another in the money with a £7000 tup lamb sale to Richard Colley, Mitchellslacks, Thornhill, Dumfries. Another backed by the best of breeding, he is bred from an Auldhouseburn ewe by a £50,000 Crossflatt that bred Mr Muirhead’s £20,000 lamb in 2021 and got by semen from the £82,000 Loughash.

Lambs from Eoin and Kirstyn Blackwood, Dalblair, Muirkirk, were in the money too with sales at £4000 and £3500.

Dearest was a son of last year’s £65,000 Crossflatt lamb bought at Lanark, out of a ewe by the £13,000 Glenrath, which sold to Messrs Devlin.

Selling at £3500 was a lamb by their own £85,000 Dalblair sold to Dyke, of which a share was retained last year. Bred from a ewe by a £28,000 Auldhouseburn, he was purchased by A Grant, High Croach, Gatehouse of Fleet.

Back amongst the shearlings and the Kays from Gass, Straiton received £4000, from Glen, Gatehouse, managed by Robert MacTaggart, for their No 3, a son of a £9000 Blackcraig, out of a ewe by a £34,000 Glenrath.

Auctioneers: Craig Wilson.

Other Leading Prices

Shearling rams – £3500, £3200, Fingland; £3500, Craig, Straiton; £3200, Corriedow; £3200, Whelphill; £3200, Cuil; £3000, Milnmark; £3000, Drumbreddon; £2500, £2600, Little Larg; £2500, Miltonise.

Ram lambs – £2000, Balrazzie; £2000, Drumbreddan; £2000, Allanfauld; £2000, Grimmet; £1800, Crossflatt.

Flock Averages

Flock (No) Top (£) Average

Shearling rams

Gass (4) 4000 2425.00

Little Larg (7) 9000 2854.28

Knockdon (3) 2000 933.33

Markdhu (6) 1100 688.33

Garchew (5) 2200 820.00

Knockeen (3) 8000 2860.00

Blackcraig (4) 2000 1125.00

Allanfauld (3) 1100 640.00