Suffolk achieve a 97% clearance rare at Carlisle

Sale leader at 14,000gns was a ewe lamb from Melvin Stuart and family, shown by son Murray and daughter Gemma, Milton of Birness, Ellon. Their No 1 lamb is a daughter of Crewelands Megastar, a tup bought at Stirling in 2017 that has bred sons to 10,000gns and daughters to 9000gns, out of a ewe by Limestone Legacy. She sold to Stephen Cobbald, Acton Hall, Sudbury, who also bought Birness' 5200gns lead priced lamb at Thainstone the previous week.

The 200-strong Birness flock also sold a ewe lamb at 3500gns to Craig Paterson of the Cranorskie flock, Aberchirder. She is got by frozen semen from Myfyr Evans' Dunfell Dynamite – a son of 200,000gns Salopian Solid Gold bought privately – and bred from a ewe by Forkins Firecracker.

More than financing that transaction, Mr Paterson sold a gimmer for 4500gns to Birness. Backed by the Stuart's own genetics, she is sired by the 5800gns Birness Banter and bred from a Birness ewe by Crewelands Megastar. Unbeaten in her class as a ewe lamb last year, the gimmer sold carrying a pair of lambs by the 7000gns Claycrop Cadillac.

Second top price was 7000gns paid for a ewe lamb from Graeme and Finn Christie's Balquhain flock from Inverurie, purchased by Tom Boden and family, of the Sportsmans flock, Stockport. A daughter of the 28,000gns Castleisle Blackadder, her dam, a show gimmer in 2023, is sired by Castleisle Comedian. Her grand-dam bred Balquhain Big Brother which sold privately to the Mullinvale flock.

The father and son duo also took 4000gns for their lead gimmer. She is by the 5500gns Howgillfoot Sniper and bred from a ewe by Lakeview Under the Radar that is a full ET sister to a 4500gns purchase of the Howgillfoot and Lakeview flocks. The gimmer changed hands carrying twin lambs to the 28,000gns Castleisle Blackadder that has produced three sons to average £8500. The buyer was Glen Walt, Balloch, Loch Lomond.

Ewe lambs from Lesley Liggett's Carony flock, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland also proved popular selling to 6000gns. Sired by Sportsmans Scholesy and bred from a Rhaeadr ewe by Limestone Limousine, she is an ET sister to the current NI Female of the year and to two 3000gns females. The ewe lamb was knocked down to Cannon Hall Farm, Barnsley.

Another ewe lamb from the same flock made 3200gns to an undisclosed buyer. A daughter of Birness Thunder II, her dam is sired by Rookery Ringmaster.

On the debit side, Carony forked out 5000gns for the lead gimmer from Stewart Craft's Lakeview flock from Glenrothes. She is sired by Salopian Scuderia, out of a ewe by Rookery Rodeo, and sold carrying a pair of lambs to the 6000gns Kings Cross ram, bought at the National sale in July.

Matching that 5000gns sale, the owners of the Kings flock, Robin and Emma Irwin, Lower Kingstree, Umberleigh, Devon, sold their second ewe lamb jointly to Nick Millar and Jayne Ferguson of the Kelcastle flock Greenlaw, Duns and Jack and Tom Arnott, Haymount, Kelso. A maternal sister to the 16,000gns ewe lamb sold to the Rhaeadr flock and the retained Kings Cruiser, she is sired by Frongoy Cannon and bred from a ewe by Roundacre Manu.

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Other Leading Prices

Gimmers – 3000gns – Balquhain by Howgillfoot Snipper and carrying twin lambs to Castleisle Blackadder to Messrs Woolway, Somersham, Huntingdon; Birness by Forkins Firecracker and due with twin lambs to Claycrop Cadillac to Messrs Bignal, Bridgend, Isle of Islay

Ewe lambs – 3000gns – Balquhain by Rookery Mean Machine, to Messrs Williams, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Gwynedd.

Averages: Gimmers – Balquhain flock – five, £2121; Cairness, four, £2021.25; Birness, 10, £1753.50; Cranorskie, six £1655.00; Lakeview, 12, £1496.25; Redbrae, five, £1344; Benrafton, three, £1120; Cairnton, four, £1023.75.

Ewe lambs – Kings, three, £2835; Carony, seven, £3195; Balquhain, three, £4375; Ballynacannon, three, £2380.

Auctioneers: Harrison and Hetherington.