The busy ringside had to hold on until the end of the day to witness the top price at the Lanark Texel ram lamb sale, but it was worth the wait, with Midlock Capaldi soaring to 200,000gns – the second top price ever paid for a Texel.
The much talked about lamb, from the Wight family – Karen, Allan, Ben, Katie and Andrew – of Midlock, Crawford, surpassed the family’s previous Texel top price of 24,000gns and beat their best price for a Blackface tup of £60,000.
He is by last year’s 12,000gns Carlisle purchase, Knock Bantastic, while the dam is by the 32,000gns Mullan Amigo and is out of a ewe bought from Garngour.
He had been an outstanding lamb from a young age, said Allan Wight: “Since he was two weeks old, we knew he was something special. He’s the first tup lamb we’ve sold out of that family.”
Their topper sold in a two-way split, to Charlie Boden, for his Sportsmans flock at Stockport, Cheshire, and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn, Muirkirk.
Overall, 342 lambs sold through the ring, averaging £3,385.46, with a 65% clearance.
That average is actually back £30 on the year, but for 17 more sold.
The Clark brothers – Alan, Andrew and David, who run the Garngour, Teiglum and Clarks flocks near Lesmahagow – had a day to remember, with their pre-sale champion, Garngour Craftsman, selling at 65,000gns to the judge, Charlie Boden.
The Mullan pen, from Northern Ireland’s Brian Hanthorn, set the trade alight early in the day, with all five averaging £13,608 and the pen number 2, Mullan Camikaze, selling at 48,000gns in a five-way split to Gordon and David Gray, Ettrick; the Knox family, Haddo; Archie and John MacGregor, Allanfauld; Robin and Caroline Orr, Halbeath, and Andrew Neilson, Brackenridge.
The judge sold to a top of 17,000gns from his Sportsmans consignment.
He was knocked down to the Wights at Midlock; Robert Cockburn, Knap, Errol, and Steven Renwick’s Craig Douglas flock at Peebles.
