Keener recording sees Kelso ram sales reach £649 per head

Despite the damp start to the day, there was an air of expectation at the Kelso tup sales yesterday – the sheep trade continues to be strong, and a rise in prices had been expected.

That rise materialised, with the average increasing £27 to a new record of £649 per head. This helped push the overall amount of cash changing hands to £2,895,770.

However, the deeper story behind the top-line figures was very much that top quality rams were making the extra money. Jack Clark, managing director of auctioneer John Swan, said: “It was the top half who had the bigger lift.”

The other telling statistic proving buyers were more selective was that more than 10 per cent of the 5,296 rams entered were not sold, a much higher level than either last year when it was at under 8 per cent and more than double the “not sold” percentage of 2009.

For Rod McKenzie, of the Scottish Sheep Strategy Group, the sale was a “complete vindication” of the work that many breeders were now putting in to record the performance of their ram lambs.

He claimed that many commercial producers – and Kelso is largely a sale for commercial sheep men – were now picking out lambs on the performance figures. “The scheme is beginning to pay off. Prices for good performance rams are now £200 to £300 per head above the average and that is a telling amount of cash.”

Even before they came to the sale, Maurice and Catherine Hardy-Bishop, Grey Peel, Jedburgh, knew they had a winner with their Texel shearling. He was in the top 1 per cent of the breed in breeding value and he had taken the breed prize at the Border Union show.

So it was no surprise when the bidding quickly rose to a new Kelso breed record of £15,000 before being knocked down to a trio consisting of Bruce Goldie, Townfoot, Mouswold, Edward Fox, Elsdonburn, Wooler, and Jonathon Watson, Bowsden Moor, Berwick on Tweed

The Hardy-Bishops, who moved north from Cumbria after their livestock were taken out in the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, sold most of their flock earlier this year, but missing the buzz of the business, they have now started up again.

The runner-up in the bidding for the record breaker, John Elliot, Roxburgh Mains, Kelso, then bought the second top priced sheep of the day with a £7,600 bid for the best shearling from Jonathon Watson.

One of the strongest pens in the Texel lines came from Alex and Russell Gray, Langside, Lanark. They twice sold at £7,000, first to Neil Fleming of Nisbet and then to Paul Slater. They backed these sales up with another at £4,500 to Neil Crighton, Loanhead, ending up with an impressive average of £1,685 for 20 shearlings sold.

Crighton also bought the top Texel shearling from the Bells of Charlesfield, Kelso, for £3,800.

The Gray family, Ettrick, Sunnycroft, Selkirk, also had a good pen of Texels forward. Their trade was topped with a £3,200 bid from Proctors, Swanning Old Hall, which was followed with a £3,000 sale.

As sheep numbers increase, there is much interest in Bluefaced Leicesters for their ability to provide Cross and Mule ewes for the commercial lamb producer. Their trade was topped with a £6,500 bid for the top shearling from Douglas and Derek Hall, Lilyburn, Penicuik, with Crowhall farms, Hexham, winning the bidding battle Lilyburn also sold at £4,500 to W Lockhart, Laggan, Monaive, to give an average of £1,866 for 18 sold.

At £3,400 S Gray, Scrogton, Douglas, sold his top shearling to Logan, Cornriggs.

The top priced Suffolk at the sale was a £5000 lamb from Iain Barbour, Solwaybank, Annan, selling to Gerry Killelea and Rooney both from Southern Ireland.

The lack of a pedigree didn’t seem to hold back Unregistered Suffolks, with strong shearlings in good demand. Highland show president Clark Stewart, Kininmonth, Cupar, invested £3,000 in the best from the Runcimans, of Allanshaws, Galashiels.