Confident Kelso average breaks £1,000 barrier

A record-breaking £1,056 average sire price confirmed cash and confidence was present in commercial sheep farming at the UK’s largest ram sale last Friday 8 September.

A summer of national lamb liveweight averages north of 250p/kg no doubt helped the Border Union Agricultural Society Kelso Ram sales post its first four-figure average.

See also: EBV proven rams can add £6 a lamb, project shows

Commercial prime lamb margins appear to have been sufficient to weather the storm of last year’s dry conditions and the most expensive winter many farms can remember, leaving ram buying budgets close to last year.  

Ahead of the sale, talk of tightening European lamb supplies due to continued heatwave conditions and Spanish sheep pox limiting breeding ewe numbers had vendors hoping for a seller’s market.

However, analysts say this is a double-edged sword, as hot European weather is often blamed for slacker export trade and a falling lamb price.

Exports remain hugely important for Britain’s lamb sector, with about a third of production heading to Europe. Both New Zealand and the UK had shipped 18% more sheepmeat into the EU, sending 47,880t and 32,510t respectively in the first half of 2023.  

Averages lift

A registered Suffolk from Jimmy Douglas, Woodhead of Cairness, Fraserburgh, made a notable impact on the day’s average, selling to the Sharps for £25,000. This helped Suffolks to average £1,302, up £124 on the year.

Bluefaced Leicesters saw firm trading for traditional and crossing-type rams, with shearlings hitting an all-in average of £1,282, just over £100 dearer on the year.

Texels  – Kelso’s primary offering – posted a throughput of 591 registered shearlings, which topped at £36,000 and levelled at £1,653, up £167 on the year.

A further 531 unregistered shearlings topped at £6,000 and levelled at £959, £115 up on the year.

Crossbred shearling rams levelled at £819 and topped at £4,000, as 479 went under the hammer. This was 36 fewer rams, but for a £10 higher average.