North West Auctions J36 Rural Auction Centre held its opening sale of Store Lambs with over 1,300 forward. The trade topped at £84.50 for pure Texel’s from Mrs L Vickers of Langdale End with other Texel lambs selling to £81 from A Talbot of Halton. There was strong demand for better confirmation lambs. Beltex lambs sold to £81, £80 and £79 from JC & E Pedley of Sedbergh with all Beltex lambs forward selling to an overall market average of £79.88. Suffolk lambs sold to a top of £78.50 from AT Threlkald Ltd of Ulverston with Charollais lambs selling to a top of £76 from RI Dixon of Grange over Sands. A consignment of Texel lambs from JT & A Armistead of Selside sold to £75.50 twice, £75 and £74.50 twice. There were plenty of pens of strong well fleshed and better confirmation lambs selling towards the seventy-pound mark. Hill bred lambs saw Mules sell to a top of £59 from TLB & J Knowles of Selside. Herdwick lambs sold to a top of £58 from M Bowman, Newbiggin on Lune. The trade was noticeably up on the year with all lambs forward selling to a market average of £60.35 which is up on the year.