Blackies hit £12,000 at Stirling

Blackface rams sold to £12,000 at Stirling where a significantly reduced and much improved entry met considerable demand.

Averages at the annual sale on Saturday, October 4, soared with shearlings up £147.60 to £459.29 and ram lambs ahead £116.47 at £382.46. The entry reflected the long standing demand from buyers that they wanted rams with size and length, a message that in recent years has all too often been ignored.

Buyer of the sale topper was James Duncan-Millar who runs 1800 Blackie ewes at Aberfeldy, Perthshire. He liked the power, body, bone, skin and conformation of the shearling, bred by brothers Willie and Ewan Bennie, Gartocharn, Stirling. By a £2000 Elmscleugh ram and out of a ewe by a £3800 Midlock sire, the ram had been the talk of the market. He gave the Bennies a day to remember as their previous highest price was £9000.

The Bennie brothers also sold at £3200 a shearling by the same breeding to the Taylor, at Killin, Perthshire.

Top priced ram lamb at £5500 was a son of a £5500 Auldhouseburn sired by a £47,000 Dalchirla sire and out of a ewe by a £49,000 Glenrath from father and son Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Muirkirk, Ayrshire. This one was snapped up by a trio of buyers of Andy Woodburn, Muirkirk; John Guild, Cumnock and Robert McInnes and Stuart Heads, Fenwick. The only other ram lamb from Auldhouseburn made £2200 to Bobby and Iain McLarty, St Fillans, Perthshire.