The great annual North of England Mule Gimmer Lambs sale, on behalf of the Kendal branch, had a catalogue entry of 8185 for the sale. The pre-sale show, held on the Friday evening for pens of ten and twenty, which also included the annual Stars in Your Eyes show and sale of Individual Mule Gimmer Lambs. The evening was deemed a great success with a packed ringside on lookers from throughout the north of England and further afield. A big thank you must go to our sponsors Farmgate Vets, New Breed UK, Mole Valley Country Stores, NF Mutual, Kentdale Land Rover, GW Taylor, Bryan Hoggarth Ltd and Ladds of Benson Hall.
There was the largest entry forward for the show which saw 21 pens of ten and 11 pens of twenty put before our judges Ms Julie Brough, Mr John Dickinson and referee Mr M Woodward, who we thank for their time and expertise. The first prize for the pen of ten was awarded to RH & C Ayrton, Abbeystead receiving the Goad Memorial Trophy. The first prize pen of twenty was awarded to A & H Watson, Kirkby Lonsdale winning the Jim Gibson Memorial Trophy who were also awarded the Bruce Willison Memorial Trophy for the Best Run of Lambs on the sale day, thanks to our judge Mr Adam Watson.
The annual Stars in Your Eyes show and sale, which is now in its third year, continues to attract plenty of interest from both vendors and buyers, with this year being the best sale yet. This year’s judge, Mr John Capstick had an entry of 18 put before him before having to choose his top six. The 2018 Stars in Your Eyes Championship Rosette was awarded to JA & CA Gibson, Selside, winning this for the second time. A very buoyant trade for the individuals saw a record breaking price set for the second prize lamb from TLB & J Knowles, Selside selling to £300 to RA Batty. The Stars in Your Eyes Champion sold to £285 to D Burton, Rutland. A further five lambs sold in excess of £180.
The sale of Gimmer Lambs, once again, attracted buyers from throughout the UK. There was plenty of trade for vendor’s top pens of lambs and strong tupping lambs, with running lambs a lot harder to place this year with more on the market due to the tough winter and summer and many southern buyers still struggling to sell Shearlings. Top price for the day was for the Champion pen of lambs from RH & C Ayrton selling to £180, purchased by the Judge Ms Julie Brough. This was closely followed by Messrs Hodgson, Windermere selling to £178. Plenty of top pens sold between £130 and £165 with the first pen of lambs of the day into the ring selling to £160 from JA & CA Gibson for the 5th prize pen of ten. First prize pen of twenty sold to £150 from A & H Watson.
A big thank you goes to our buyers for their continued support at North West Auctions and wish you all the very best with your purchases.