Midlock Capaldi soars to 200,000gns at Lanark

Sale topping ram lamb, Midlock Capaldi, was bred by the Wight family, Biggar, and sired by Knock Bantastic, he is an ET-bred lamb flushed from 2018-born Mullan Amigo daughter and goes back to a Garngour dam purchased in 2016.

Unshown in the pre-sale show, the final bid came from a two-part consortium of Charlie Boden, buying for the Sportsmans and Mellor Vale flocks and Hugh and Alan Blackwood for their Auldhouseburn flock.

Commenting on the price achieved by the sale leader, British Texel Sheep Society chief executive John Yates said that while it may seem an extreme price for a ram lamb to many, it was another sign of the confidence breeders had in Texels.

He said: “Those animals perceived to be carrying the best genetics will always command a premium, and with ongoing investment in modern breeding technologies, such as embryo transfer and artificial insemination by Texel breeders being more than £1m a year, the potential earnings from this ram are vast.”

Up next achieving 65,000gns was the pre-sale champion, Garngour Craftsman, from the Clark family, Lanarkshire. This son of the 17,000gns Silvermere Baltic is out of a dam by Mossvale Winston and is a maternal brother to the 40,000gns Garngour Alabama.

Selling with an index of 252 and having also won the recorded class in the pre-sale show, it was another secured by the judge Mr Boden, Cheshire.