BREEDING EWES, CHEVIOT SHEARLINGS AND MULE SHEARLINGS
North West Auctions hosted its Annual Show and Sale of 5000 Mule and Continental Ewes and Gimmer Shearlings. There was a buoyant trade throughout the sale, as to be expected, following on from a buoyant time within the sheep industry. It was great to see returning buying customers as well as many new travelled buyers.
One of the best line ups seen for some time in the Mule Gimmer Shearling class saw an impressive line up of 14 pens for our judges Henry Knowles, Kendal and Matt Harrison, Milton Keynes to cast their eye over, who we thank for their time and expertise. The first prize rosette for the Mule Shearlings and winning the John Nelson Memorial Trophy was Fox Farms, Clitheroe selling to £230. The Derek Cleasby Memorial Trophy for the Champion pen of Mule Ewes was awarded to G&C Rylands, Tullithwaite with a smart pen of one crop ewes selling to £190.
Mule ewes met huge demand with regular consigners well supported and enjoying fantastic trade The consignment from FI & ME Little, Barrows Green sold to £190 three times, £185 twice and £180. Other leading prices saw the consignment from TA & JA Dixon, Selside sell to £185 twice with one crop ewes from AJ & G Bament, Towcester sell to £180. All Mule ewes forward averaged £156.79.
4 crop Continental ewes sold to a top of £172 from R Seed & Son, Chipping with Charollais ewes to £185 from BM Walker, Askham in Furness. Plenty of people in the market today were looking for well grown, quality sheep in which more could have easily been sold to the advantage of vendors. Middle quality sheep were well bid for, with the bottom end meeting realisation.
Taking top spot today at £290 was a very stylish pen with second prize from JK & BE Townley, Caton selling to £290. A great consignment from T H Gibson & Son, Staveley saw his run of sheep easily bid for selling to £280, £230 twice and £220 twice. Other noted prices were a consignment from James Taylor, Kendal selling to £230 with others to £220 from Messrs Whittaker, Millom. This was followed by other consignments topping at £215 from AR Edmondson, Ulverston, £215 from JS & KM Wilson & Son, Kendal, £215 from E Parker and £210 from AJ Geary, Milton Keynes. There was an impressive overall market average for Mule shearlings of £177.44.
CONTINENTAL, TEXEL AND ANY OTHER BREED SHEARLINGS
The catalogue entry of 1600 Continental shearlings all sold to their full value. Well-bred strong Continental gimmer shearlings were particularly in great demand. I would like to thank our Judges Geoff and Carole Marwood for their time and expertise and after much deliberation they awarded the first prize rosette to a wonderful pen of Texel home bred shearlings from JK & BE Townley, Lancaster which flew away to a price of £270. The day’s trade topped at £315 for a pair of pure Texel gimmer shearlings from ME & CA Duerden, Askham with other Texels selling to £285 from Sue Cunliffe, Grange over Sands. John Capstick, Killington sold his annual consignment of well-bred Texels selling to a top of £260 for a pen of ten. David Barker, Scarborough sold another wonderful run of Texel shearlings with these peaking at £255.
Purchasers were keen to secure shearlings which had lambed, with these selling to a top of £200 from J Capstick, Killington. Good straight Continental gimmer shearlings were regularly selling in the £175 - £190 mark.