Pedigree breeders were well rewarded for putting their faith in the transparency of the live auction ring and the strict Covid-19 guidelines at the first of United Auctions’ Stirling Bull Sales, with increased prices and averages across the board.

A new weekend format, coupled with an internet bidding facility and usual pre-sale parade of bulls before going into the ring, proved easier for vendors and potential purchasers alike ensuring this business only event went like clockwork.

And with each breed allocated a single day, outwith the small number of Lincoln Reds which were sold the same day as the Beef Shorthorns, attendance was restricted, allowing everyone to feel safe.

Strong demand throughout ensured increased clearance rates too for all three breeds and improved averages, with all rising more than £650 per head on the year.

Beef Shorthorns enjoyed the best of the business, witnessing a hat-trick of records to include a new bull sale high of 27,000gns, and best ever average of £6127 for 54 – up a massive £1347 on the year with a 79% clearance, and for one more sold.

It was the sale of David and Tom Bradley Farmer’s Meonside Nidavellir, that set the trade alight, when he sold for a record breaking 27,000gns to Lucinda Townsend and her husband, Derek Steen, buying for the Coxhill herd, at Moffat.

Superseding the previous best of 26,000gns – paid for Major Gibb and his daughter Catriona’s Glenisla Jackpot, paid here in 2017 – was a son of the 10,000gns Willingham Kensington.

A heifer from the late Jack Ramsay and his wife, Grace’s Millerston herd, from Mauchline, also produced a new February top price of 7500gns, with the female average levelling at £3029 for 18.

Topping the female trade at 7500gns was Millerston Iranian Marilyn, an in-calf three-year-old heifer, purchased by Andre Vrona, buying for the Langham herd, from Rutland, Leicester.

The first day’s trading of Aberdeen Angus was equally buoyant, with prices peaking at 15,000gns for David Walker and his wife, Beverley, who were also celebrating their second wedding anniversary. Their sale leader, Galcantray Jedi Eric, from Cawdor, Nairn, sold to Neil and Graeme Massie, Blelack, Dinnet, and Jonathan Doyle, Drumhill, Northern Ireland.

Jedi Eric was one of eight Angus bulls to sell at five-figure prices which in turn bolstered the breed’s sale average to £6499 for 66. This was up £679 on the year and with an 86% clearance.

Limousin breeders also enjoyed a cracking event on the back of two top sales at Dungannon and Carlisle. Top price here was 11,000gns paid for a black bull from the young Moir brothers, William and David, Home Farm, Cairness, Fraserburgh. Their Cairness Paavo, was purchased on line by D Walker and Son, Camregan, Girvan, Ayrshire.

Limousin bull averages were also up by more than £1000 with 34 cashing in at £5911, up £1049 on last year’s event and with a 79% clearance. .

Sadly, only one Lincoln Red bull sold, St Fort Yoyo, a polled two-year-old son of the former Great Yorkshire Show inter-breed champion, St Fort Rolex, from Andrew Mylius, St Fort, Newport on Tay. The buyer at 5000gns was JAS McLaren, Murrayshall, Cambusbarron, Stirling.

The same vendor also topped the Lincoln Red heifers at 2200gns with St Fort Frosty, a September, 2019-born heifer, also by Rolex, purchased by James Cameron, of Trainview Livestock, Kingsmuir, Forfar. The three Lincoln Red heifers from St Fort, averaged £1855.