Borderway Mart in Carlisle played host to the much-anticipated, annual Three Nations In-lamb Suffolk Sale. The event attracted buyers from all across the UK, leading to a lively trade for the 89 catalogued lots. There was a strong clearance of 89% and an impressive average price of £3,124 (€3,754) was obtained.
The top-priced lot of the day came from the much-admired Lakeview consignment. This standout ewe was sired by the well-known Strathbogie Stallone and she was scanned in-lamb with twins to the 6,000gns Kings Cross.
After fierce bidding, she was knocked down in a two-way split to the Madenstone and Howgillfoot flocks for 25,000gns (€31,526).
The Lakeview flock went on to sell a further six Strathbogie Stallone daughters, all scanned in-lamb to Kings Cross, to give them a very impressive pen average of 5,200gns (€6,543).
The next top price of the day was 20,000gns (€25,221) and it was achieved by the pre-sale show champion. This animal hailed from the Sportsmans pen of the Boden family.
She is a daughter of the current breed record holder, 200,000gns Salopian Solid Gold, and was described in pre-sale comments as a “powerhouse with a lot of character”.
Scanned in-lamb to Annakisha Champ, she was sold to Oliver Watson to join his newly-established Suffolk flock.
The Boden family sold a total of eight in-lamb shearling ewes, to average 6,950gns (€8,745) on the day.
Online sale
Sold via online video stream due to bluetongue restrictions was the 10,000gns (€12,599) Limestone shearling ewe from the NI-based flock of Mark Priestly.
This eye-catching shearling ewe was a daughter of £33,000 Castleisle A Kingsman and a maternal sister to the 48,000gns Limestone Marksman.
She was scanned carrying a single to Ballygroogan Banker and was picked up by the Huntly flock.
The entire Limestone consignment was sold via online livestream to an average of 4,440gns (€5,588).
Demand for in-lamb shearling ewes was slightly higher than 2023, with the average of £3,359 (€4,029) up £100.
Ewe lambs
Myfyr Evans’ Rhaeadr flock dominated the ewe lamb section and his ewe lamb
sold for 9,000gns (€11,331) to Tombridge.
This standout ewe lamb is a daughter of the renowned Dunfell Dynamite, that has bred ram lambs to 20,000gns and ewe lambs to the current record price of 28,000gns.
Following directly after the sale-topper was another cracking Rhaeadr ewe lamb, this one sired by the 19,000gns Carony Cha-Ching.
She sold for 4,500gns (€4,725) to Clanfield. This impressive pen of five Rhaeadr ewe lambs sold to average a strong 4,440gns (€5,588). Overall, ewe lambs sold very well on the day, to average £2,390 (€2,866).
