Kelso – Traditional Type – 12th September 2025

Kelso – Friday 12th September 2025

Pre Sale Show Kindly Sponsored by Davidsons Animal Feeds & NFU Mutual

The annual curtain raiser for the autumn ram sales certainly didn’t disappoint, with 419 tups entered for the sale through the two rings. Trade was fast and furious, with no let up in the bidding or the pace that the auctioneers rattled through the lots. By the fall of the final gavel early in the afternoon nearly £690,000 had changed hands, with the average well up over both rings to level at £1985 for the 350 forward.

In the Traditional ring the demand for tups was off the scale, with some great tups on offer and buyers circling the ring all day. The highlight of the sale was the pre-sale champion from Andrew Adam, Glamis. This corker of a tup was put to the top by the Judge, Matt Drummond from the Cassington flock, and caused quite a stir. This was the first time showing for the Glamis flock at the Kelso tup sales in the BFL rings and it was certainly a memorable debut! He is by a West Bolton tup that they bought out of Kelso for £2800 a couple of years back and his mother is a homebred ewe by a Woodcroft tup which they borrowed from his aunt Hazel McNee. There were plenty who wanted him but, in the end, it was Alan & Sam McClymont who had the deepest pockets, shelling out £22,000 for him a centre record for Traditional shearlings.

Despite Alan worrying that he would have to cancel Christmas in the Kirkstead household this year, they managed to turn it around when they got into the ring with their tup lambs. They took first and second in the lamb classes and the first place lamb, Kirkstead V2 went on to pick up the reserve championship ticket too. This lamb is no stranger to the showring, having already picked up red tickets at the Highland and the Progeny show at the Border Union show. He is by the £12,000 Madrissa tup, which has done exceptionally in the show ring himself this year, winning the Male Champion in the breed section at the Highland before going on to make up one half of the Interbreed Champions at the Highland too. The mother to the lamb is the £5800 ewe they bought at the Raymond Baynes flock dispersal, she is by the L1 Kirkstead. The hammer fell at £15,000 for this great lamb and he was taken home by RM Adam and Messrs Fotheringham. The second place lamb, Kirkstead V14, went on to sell for £10,000. This boy is out of the homebred ewe which was the Reserve Interbreed Champion at this years Highland show and by the £23,000 Espley R1, who was the Breed Champion at the 2024 Highland Show. The quality shone through and the hammer fell with J & S Kay, Hartside Lammermuir acquiring his services. The Kirkstead shearling also sold to a top of £4200 with a shearling by S1 Blythbank, and the pen of 10 averaged £2200, so in the end, despite threatening to cancel Christmas, I suspect Christmas will be as lavish as ever at Kirkstead!

The prices and trade seemed to keep rising all day and even to the final pen the bidders were as keen as ever, and indeed, it was one of the last tups from the last consigner, which again hit five figures, with a shearling from the Westhills flock run by Robert Mackay. It was a Drinkstone bred sheep, bought out of Carlisle last year, with an eye of turning it over to try and make a wee bit of profit. It is by the S3 Piel View and out of a Drinkstone bred ewe by Ashes M9, so has some great bloodlines running through him. He was bought in a two way split with L Fleming and R Coney the happy buyers, although is suspect they would have been happier if they had got him as a lamb at Carlisle, as they stumped up £11,000 for him.

Trade was great on the day, with any number of tups hitting between £3-5500, reflecting a great demand for the Traditional tups. One of these was the pen leader from the West Bolton flock, who also claimed the Trever Simpson trophy for the best run of tups. This is the second time they have achieved this feat. Their top was £5500 for a M45 Whinnyhall sired shearling and their run of tups reflected the quality of their run by levelling out at £1821 for 19 tups.

Martin Quinn, Whinnyhall also had a good day at the races with his pen, topping at £5000 with a shearling by R1 West Bolton, himself a son of the M45 Whinnyhall. This one sold to Mosser Mains and helped the Whinnyhall flock level at £2171.