Castle Douglas – 20th September 2023

Castle Douglas BFL sale – Wednesday 20th September, 2023

Show & Sale Kindly Sponsored by Tarff Valley Ltd, Agricultural Merchants

The afternoon and evening show at Castle Douglas, held after the Blackface draft ewe sale drew a good crowd of onlookers in, with the sale ring full until the end and the pens full of people before the sale started too. The sale went well too, with averages jumping some £41 on the year for the shearlings to £884.71.

Topping the days trade was a powerfully made tup from the Forebrae flock from father and son team, John and Callum Park. He is by an Alwinton tup which they have been using well over the last couple of years and he has been producing the goods in both the mules and the Leicester’s, with a gimmer by him taking the championship tickets at Muirkirk and Glenkens shows this summer. They used their topper as a lamb, and he made enough of an impression for Alec Brown, Macqueston and Stewart Park, SP Dalpeddar to dig into their pokets and fork out 2600gns for him.

After the pre-sale show, sponsored by Tarff Valley,The Judge, Alan Rogerson, backed his championship choice, a powerful shearling from the Lockhart family, Laggan Park, by splashing the cash on him, 2000gns to be precise. It was easy to see why he picked this boy out for the red, white and blue ticket, along which his sheer presence, he was a great colour with a lovely skin on him. He was sired by the Steel tup, a son of Carry House Flash, bought out of Carlisle for 4000gns two years back. He was full of home breeding on his mothers side, out of a homebred ewe got by a homebred tup. They had used him successfully as a lamb, and saw several of his lambs in their top pen at Castle Douglas earlier in the season.

Finniness set the ball rolling, first into the ring, but that didn’t stop them enjoying a good trade, with the very first tup in clocking in at 2000gns. This powerful boy was by the homebred N8, a son of Farden L4 and out of ewe by another homebred sire. This one went to Messrs Walker, Sanquhar. Their third tup in enjoyed a cracking trade to, with a bid of 1900gns seeing him go to his new home at Pinvalley Farm. This one is by the Nunscleugh M1, which has done well for them, and out of a ewe the same way bred as the first.

Not content with the judges duty to try and buy the champion, Alan Rogerson, went a step further and added the reserve champion to his flock too! This came from the Macqueston flock and was by the Glenrath P35. This one was out of M54 Macqueston, one of the flocks best ewes, by the Hewgill K26. This boy knocked Alan back 1500gns. This wasn’t the top price out of this well respected pen, that accolade went to one a little further down the line, sired by the Midlock L18, a son of the great Mustang, and out of a daughter of the L12 Shafthill, which has done well for them. this one was snapped up for 1600gns by R Anderson, Ardoch. Both these lambs had been used at home and done well, with lambs in their run of 400 at Castle Douglas, which levelled out at  £158.