AS A hill sheep farmer I was, of course, familiar with all things connected with tups.

For instance there are tup harnesses, tup couplings (these consist of a length of chain with a swivel in it to stop it twisting up and was used to fasten two horned tups together by their horns to prevent them escaping in the run-up to the breeding season).

There is also a tup cradle to sit them in while you attend to their feet or their horns.

There is a tup house for shelter in winter and many more things pertaining to tups.

However, on Friday I came across a sign I had never seen before in my life and this said "TUP TAXIS".

It happened at the large - probably the largest - one-day tup sale in Europe in Parkland on the outskirts of Kelso.

Several thousand tups change hands by auction with up to, I think, 18 auction rings going at once.

On Friday just 16 rings were in use.

The largest queue on the field was not the one at the auctioneer's office with buyers waiting to settle up, nor was it the one at the refreshment stall.

The longest queue by far was the one with people waiting for "tup taxis".

There must have been about 20 or more of them, and what they consisted of was a four-wheel motor bike with a handy sheep trailer complete with a driver.

Most sheep farmers will have an outfit like that, but on the day they served as tup taxis.

When you got to the head of the queue you gave your pass ticket and went with the driver to wherever your purchase or purchases were penned.

Once loaded into the taxi they were taken to wherever your vehicle was parked and the tup or tups off-loaded into your trailer, wagon or whatever.

This is some-thing new to us as we have not been to Kelso for some years.

Nowadays you are not allowed, in fact stronger than that, you are completely forbidden to take a vehicle to the sheep pens before 6.pm.

The system is a good one and free of charge but it was my view and that of many others that it needed better organising.

From midday onwards they could easily have done with 50 Tup Taxis in order to cope better.

Really the only thing wrong was the length of time wasted in the queue.

The thought occurred to me that one could possibly diversify for a short time of the year anyway into Tup Taxis.

So, if ever you have need of one, do remember to be kind to the driver for, you never know, it might be me.

This year's entry of tups was 6,000 - all of course sold individually.

As is always the case the breed with the most entries was the Suffolk, almost half the total.

The sale was noted as being satisfactory with a decent trade in general.

It says a lot about the optimism of producers who were looking for quality animals and when they found them, being prepared to pay for them.

All this at a time when the Government appears not to care about the sheep industry - even giving the impression that ity would not be averse to the sheep meat coming in from abroad.

Dialect word: Addle meaning to earn.

Thought for the day: Teacher said: "Name three collective nouns." Charlie said: "Flypaper, wastebasket, and vacuum cleaner."