Tuesday 6th April, 2021

Breeding Sheep

The weekly sale of sheep with lambs at foot saw a much-increased entry selling to a stronger trade. More purchasers ringside this week with sheep to please all buyers’ requirements with well over 120 families on offer. A cracking consignment of Beltex ewes with Beltex twin lambs from WJ Standen and Son, Lancaster led the way selling to £350, £320 twice and £310. Two crop Texel ewes with twin Texel lambs from J & M Wilson, Selside sold to £275 and Mule 1 crop ewes with twin Charollais lambs twice selling to £230 from the same home. Mixed aged continental ewes with twin Texel lambs sold to £260 from M Moorhouse, Grange over Sands. Aged Mule ewes with twin lambs sold to £228 from J France, Pilling with plenty more pens selling in excess of the £220 mark.
As spring creeps ever nearer the demand grows for sheep with lambs at foot, more buyers are looking to purchase each week. Next week’s sale includes the show for pens of five ewes and shearlings with twin lambs at foot. For more information, please contact Ian Atkinson 07766521472.

Prime Hoggs

The strongest trade seen for some weeks with an overall market average of 299p/kg and SQQ of 303p/kg for an entry of 1113. The demand from buyers was the strongest seen for some time with all specifications of hoggs eagerly bid for. Best conformation hoggs sold to 400p/kg firstly from JG Harryman, Hawkshead achieving £164 with a Beltex hogg, others from the same home selling to 397p/kg and 393p/kg or £163, £161 and £160. Also achieving 400p/kg was PJ & H Onions, Arkholme selling to £156. The top price of the day was Beltex hoggs selling to £167 or 397p/kg from N & ME Harrison, Shap. A cracking run of hoggs from DJ Clarke, Underbarrow sold to a top of £160, followed by £159 from J & C Airey, Ulverston with heavy weight continental hoggs and £159 from MW & MR Black, Staveley. Plenty of hoggs selling in excess of the £140 mark.
Horned hoggs peaked at £138.50 for a pen of 42 Scotch Blackface 45kg hoggs from M & YS Barker, Halton with other 44kg hoggs from the same home selling to £135.50. It was fantastic to see a bumper entry of Herdwick hoggs forward today, many travelling from far and wide to sell with us and being rewarded for travelling. A pen of 44 Herdwick hoggs weighing 40kg sold to £116 from JB & ND Baines, Eskdale. Pens of lightweight well fleshed Herdwick hoggs often selling for 300p/kg and more.

Spring Lambs

The entry of 26 forward sold to an overall market average of 370p/kg with an SQQ average of 378p/kg. Heavy weight Dorset lambs from Sophie Waller, Killington sold to £172 at 55kg. Pure Suffolk lambs from T & E Redmayne, Southwaite to £170 and £167. Beltex lambs peaked at £164 or 410p/kg from FE & CM Robinson & Son, Milnthorpe. Plenty of demand for Spring lambs at J36 with more required each week.

Cast Sheep

A huge demand for cast sheep today at J36 with a market average of well over £100, which included a large quantity of hill sheep. There was 394 forward today which saw a trade where twice as many easily could have been sold. It was cast tups that stole the headlines selling to £189 for Texels from M Cook, Ulverston with others from the same home to £174 and £171 from M Allen, Carnforth. The ewe trade peaked at £174 for Pure Suffolk ewes from T & E Redmayne, Southwaite. Texel ewes peaked at £150 twice from J & C Airey, Ulverston and M Archer and Son, Bolton Le Sands. Continental ewes regularly sold between £130 and £150 today. Heavyweight mule ewes sold to £137 from AW Crowe, Witherslack, plenty of others selling between £125 and £130. Gritstone ewes from S Whitehead, Middleton sold to £117. Horned ewes a very sharp trade peaking at £111 from Strickland Hill Farming, Witherslack with a pen of nine strong Swaledale ewes. Rough Fell ewes sold to £104 from Stockdale Farms, Sedbergh.