Pigs

There was a smaller entry of Pigs forward today due to the change of date, but all sold to full value.

Prime pigs sold to 122 for a Gloucester Old Spot gilt from C Blackshaw, with J Stott selling Pietrain x pigs to £120 and £110 twice. Lighter weight pigs were £85 for boars from NJ Wilkinson. Cull sows sold to £100 with others at £98 and £95.

A pen of strong white weaners from M Carefoot achieved £50.

The next monthly sale of all classes of pigs will be on Tuesday 12th June.

Sheep with Lambs at Foot

A larger entry this week of over 215 outfits, or 548 lives of sheep with lambs, which were met with a sharper trade with all age groups selling to a strong demand. The trade was topped by a consignment from G & KM Atkinson of Colby selling Mule shearlings with Texel twins to £240 and £235. Continental shearlings with twins from the same good home sold to £210. Two crop Mule ewes with Texel twins topped at £218 from JA Alderson of Kirkby Stephen. There was plenty of good young outfits, with good lambs selling in excess of the £200 mark. The first major consignment of hoggs with lambs at foot forward this week from G & ID Postlethwaite of Howgill sold to a top of £172, twice, for Texel hoggs with single lambs at foot. The older sheep trade was very dependent on the quality of the outfits, with big Suffolk 4 shear ewes with young Suffolk lambs selling to a top of £185 from JR Corlett of Cockermouth. Aged Mules with Texel lambs sold to a top of £175 from Matson Ground Farms of Windermere.

Spring Lambs

The largest entry of spring lambs to date saw an entry of 70 forward selling to a strong average of 307p/kg. Topping the trade today, and winning a cash prize of £5 for the highest priced pen of four lambs or less was a 49kg Texel lamb selling to £151 from MJ Waller of Lupton. Winning the £10 cash prize for the highest priced pen of 5 or more spring lambs was FE & CM Robinson and Son of Crooklands selling 36kg Dorsets to £109. Suffolks sold to a top of £147 for a pen of three weighing 45kg from S Proctor of Selside. There was plenty of lambs selling in excess of £140. Texels sold to a top 340p/kg, once again, from S Proctor of Selside.

Prime Hoggs

There was a larger entry of hoggs forward selling to a stronger trade then the previous week, with an overall market average of 245p/kg achieved with 45-52kg hoggs selling to an average of 261p/kg. Best conformation Beltex and Continental hoggs easily sold in excess of 300p/kg. Topping the trade was P Cummings of Holme selling 40kg Beltex hoggs to 367p/kg or £147, with others from the same home selling to 322p/kg. Heavy weight Beltex hoggs topped at £161 from, again from, P Cummings closely followed by JG Harryman of Hawkshead selling Texels to £160. The Mule trade topped at £145 for 64kg from S & M Cooper of Ulverston with Scotch Blackfaced hoggs from the same good home selling to £126 weighing 51kg.

Cast Sheep

A smaller entry of cast sheep in the market today saw 364 forward sell to a continued strong trade at J36. The trade was topped by John Stott Jnr of Crosscrake selling Charollais ewes to £145 and £133. Texel ewes sold to £139 from JG & BJ Escolme of Killington with other Texel ewes to £131 from E & J Postlethwaite of Old Hutton. Suffolk ewes sold to a top of £129 from JR Corlett of Cockermouth. Plenty of pens of heavy weighing Continental and Suffolk ewes selling either side of the £110 mark, depending on size and condition. Mule ewes topped at £95 from G, GU & D Swarbrick of Grange over Sands with plenty of good Mule ewes selling around the ninety pound mark. Herdwick cast ewes sold to a top of £90 from WG & D Wilkinson of Coniston with others to £83 from Messrs Edmondson of Great Langdale.