Thursday 22nd March

Calves

There was a bumper entry of over 80 calves and stirks in the market this week. The trade topped at £400 for British Blue bulls from Messrs Sowerby of Appleby, heifers from the same home sold to £310, again for British Blues. Plenty of beef calves sold around the £300 mark. There was the sharpest trade for some time for black and white calves at J36 selling to a top of £190 from Messrs Sowerby, closely followed by £165 from HJ Robinson & Son of Milnthorpe. There was plenty of good quality rearing black and whites seeing the bestselling in excess of the £100 with younger ones selling towards £100.

A few stirks on offer today were in strong demand with grass day coming ever closer with fresh faces ringside looking to purchase. The trade toped at £600 from DJ Clarke of Underbarrow for an Angus steer with Simmental steers from the same home selling to £500. Limousin heifers from the same home from selling to £500.

OTM and Cast Cows

A show of 50 Cast Cows & OTM Cattle were forward for sale at Junction 36 today, selling, once again, to a strong trade, with all classes well bid for. The day’s trade was topped by a tremendous British Blue cow achieving 179.5p/kg from N Cooper & Sons of Woodland. A consignment of 3 pure Blonde Cows from BT Atkinson of Newlands sold to a top of 171.5p/kg to average 165p/kg. Dairy bred cattle sold to a top of 141.5p/kg for Montbeliardes from JJ&MA Park & Son of Helsington, who also sold Swedish Red & Whites to 134.5p/kg. Holstein and Friesian Cattle sold to 139.5p/kg from J Scott & Co of Cark-in-Cartmel and 134.5p/kg from JW Hargreaves of Woodland. All cows and heifers in the market selling to an average of 128.68p/kg, with Holsteins averaging 113.8p/kg. Just one Cast Bull in the market today, a Limousin forward from O&JR Dixon of Ings selling to 129.5p/kg.

Breeding Cattle

The monthly sale of breeding cattle saw an entry of a dozen outfits forward, creating plenty of interest from buyers in which more could have been sold with buyers leaving empty handed. Topping the trade was a second calved pure Limousin cow suckling a bull calf at foot selling to £1850 from Thor Atkinson of Ulverston, with a fifth calved pure Limousin cow with bull calf at foot selling to £1,680. British Blue second calved cows with a Limousin calf at foot sold to £1650 from K Whitaker and Son of Bay Horse with British Blue heifers and Limousin calves from the same home to £1,600.

Store Cattle and Suckler Calves

An excellent entry of 400 Store Cattle forward for the Spring Show & Sale of Suckler Bred Cattle at Junction 36, where vendors should be congratulated on the quality of cattle entered. The show classes were ably judged by David Wright of Bakewell, who awarded the 1st Prize Suckler Bred Bullock the Championship honours from A&P Hodgkinson of Poulton-le-Fylde. The Reserve being awarded to the 1st Prize Heifer forward from TMW&H Hodgson of Nibthwaite. We would like to thank our judge for this time and expertise and to our sale sponsors Lloyd Motor Group and Rural Law Practice for their generous support.

Top price of the day was achieved by the Show Champion, a Limousin steer 11mo, selling for £1190, followed by another from D Nicholson of Blawith at £1180, with 3 other steers selling for £1160 from TMW&H Hodgson, M Robinson of Lowgill and J&ME Bateman of Lowgill. All steers in the market sold to average £906.36.

The heifer section was topped by Thor Atkinson of Newlands for a Limousin Heifer 26mo which was fit to bull selling for £1170, with others from the same home to £1100 & £1080. The Reserve Champion from Messrs Hodgson went on to sell for £1050. All heifers in the market averaging £787.50.

A consignment of 6 Pure Limousin bulls from K Thomas of Firbank sold to £1080, to average £1006.67.

An overall average of £873.33, where a large percentage of the entries were young suckler bred cattle, with 50 lots being sold for £1000 or more.