Lakeview continues to sparkle at Dark Diamonds

Gary Beacom’s Lakeview flock, Fivemiletown, Co Fermanagh, continued its successful year in the sales ring by topping the Dark Diamonds sale of in-lamb Suffolk ewes at Borderway Mart, Carlisle, earlier this month.

The sale included consignments from 10 of the top breeders in the UK and Ireland and resulted in an exceptional sale of gimmers, ewe lambs and aged ewes, attracting interest from buyers from the Republic of Ireland, the UK and as far away as Belgium and Portugal.

Top price was Lakeview’s first gimmer into the ring, lot 320, who sold for £9,200gns. This big powerful and breedy gimmer possessed some of the best back breeding to be found in the catalogue.

Sired by the £25,000gns Rhaeadr Rolex, who needs no introduction having bred the record-breaking £8,000gns gimmer for Mr Beacom last month at the Northern Ireland sale.

The dam of this gimmer by Solwaybank Major had topped this sale in 2015 when she was purchased by the Rookery flock for £9,000gns. Selling in-lamb to the 2017 sire of the year, Rookery Rodeo, who she had also been flushed to in August and two of these recipient embryos were included in the sale with her.

She joins the Lomondview flock of Stuart Craft, Little Balquhomire, Fife, who previously purchased an ET sister to this gimmer in Balmoral in May for £2,600gns.

The next best price was £4,100gns for a ewe lamb and was received by another Northern Ireland-based consignment, Leslie Liggett’s Carony flock, Drumquin, Co Tyrone.

Sired by the £7,000gns Rhaeadr Redbull and out of a ewe by Cairnton The Cracker, this lamb, whose twin brother fetched £1,000gns at the national sale, attracted a lot of interest and was eventually knocked down to Ayrshire-based breeder Billy Borthwick, Ballochmyle.

This helped contribute to the Carony flock having an excellent ewe lamb average of £1,485 for their seven lambs sold.

George and Melvin Stuart’s Birness flock claimed the next best price at £3,400gns, received for a stylish Ballynacannon Commander daughter 1W:16:01654.

This gimmer was out of a ewe sired by Meiklson Square Up and she had been scanned in lamb with a pair to the £9,500gns Limestone Legacy. Crossing the Irish Sea, the successful purchaser on this occasion was Ronan McLaughlin from Co Donegal.

First ewe lamb

The first ewe lamb into the ring sold for the next best price of £3,200gns, snapped up by Ashley Bothwell to join his Smithston flock, based in Ayrshire.

This was for Alastair Gault’s AOR:17:01922 from his Forkins flock. Sired by Forkins Fandango, a Cloontagh Chieftain son retained for breeding, this lamb was out of the flock’s best ewe, who has previously bred the £4,000gns Forkins Fagan, daughters to £3,500gns and many other four-figure priced females.

Fandango also bred Mr Gault’s £2,200gns ewe lamb on the day, bred from a ewe by Cairness Caius that was bought at the Glenisla dispersal by Jimmy Douglas. She was the pick of John Sinnett, Worcester.

Irish breeders certainly made their presence felt, with Mark Priestley forking out £2,800gns to buy the lead-priced gimmer from Graeme Christie’s Balquhain flock from Aberdeenshire to take back to join his Limestone flock, based at Seaforde, Co Down. This was Mr Christie’s first entry to the ring.

Sired by the £10,000gns Deveronside Doodlebug – a jointly purchased sire that bred the top-priced ewe lamb here last year and the flock’s own show gimmer that was champion at several events. She is a daughter from a ewe by Glenhead Golden Phoenix and sold carrying a single to the £6,000gns Lakeview Under the Radar.

Two gimmers sold for £2,600gns. The first of these was received by Co Donegal breeder Andrew Wilson for his first gimmer in, DDX:16:00750.

This one was sired by sire of the year 2016 and the flock’s very successful stock ram Birness Murray. This gimmer was out of a Shannagh Resolve daughter and had been scanned in lamb carrying a single to £10,000gns Lakeview Armani.

She went back home to Co Donegal having been purchased by Ronan McLaughlin to add to his earlier investment. This gimmer contributed to Andrew’s top shearling gimmer average of £1,890 for five sold.

The second gimmer at this money was another from George Stuart’s Birness flock, 1W:16:01613. Sired by Redbrae Rambo and out of a Rhaeadr Giggsy daughter, this gimmer had been scanned carrying a pair to the £3,800gns Crewelands Megastar. She was purchased by Craig Paterson from Huntly.

Alastair Gault’s Forkins flock from Co Antrim had the two next-best gimmer prices at £2,300gns and £2,100gns.

Mr Gault’s lead gimmer AOR:16:01511 was sired by Mountford Mustang and bred from a ewe by Broomknowes Touch of Class. It sold scanned for a pair to the £8,000gns Rhaeadr Rio. She found a new home in Wales with breeder E Williams.

The £2,100gns Forkins gimmer was by the €31,000 Cloontagh Chieftain, purchased at the Irish Premier sale, bred from a ewe by Birness Bacardi that is a maternal sister to the £13,000gns Forkins Figo. This great carcase gimmer is a twin sister to Forkins Fandango. She also sold carrying a pair to Rio and was the choice of H Turner, Hatton.

The second-top priced ewe lamb was from Ross Lawrence’s Roundacre flock. This strong ewe lamb with great colours was sired by Strathisla Speed and bred from a Lakeview ewe by Cairness Classic that bred last year’s £5,800gns top-priced ewe lamb Roundace Roxy and the £6,000gns Roundacre Rafiki that sold at Stirling in July. She was knocked down to James Wallace, Kirkinner for £2,200gns.