Prime Lambs
North West Auctions held its annual Young Handlers show and sale of prime lambs on Monday 21st October. Thanks go to Mr Michael Lomax, Conder Green for giving up his time and expertise and judging this morning and thanks must go to our sponsor WCF Fuels. The overall champion young handler was awarded to 5 year old Lily Bargh, Heaton-with-Oxcliffe with her 39kg Texel lamb which sold to £90 purchased by Gregory Williams Butchers, Lancaster. The first prize in the lowland lamb shown by an under 10 from Robert Standen, age 2, weighing 41kg which sold to £94 which was, again, purchased by Gregory Williams Butchers. The Lowland lamb class to be shown by an 11-16-year-old was won by Rachel Philips, Killington selling her 44kg Beltex lamb for £100. A big thank you must go to all the young handlers who took part in todays show and to all their family and friends for supporting this feature.
Following on from the show the weekly sale of Prime Lambs had a similar trade to the previous week, with an overall market average of 161p/kg and an SQQ 162p/kg. Lambs sold to a top of £108 for heavy weight Texels from M Berry, Stalmine with other heavy weight Texel lambs selling to £95 from JR & LA Capstick, Killington and GR & RA Surtees, Stodday. Plenty of pens of 50kg+ well-meated Continental lambs sold into the eighties. Best conformation lambs were in strongest demand today selling to 231p/kg from Bargh Contractors, Heaton-with-Oxcliffe and 229p/kg from The Standen Family, Lancaster. The trade was noticeably sharper for all better conformation lambs. There were more hill lambs on offer this week with Mules selling to a top of £69 from D & D Huddleston, Wray.
Cast Sheep
There were over 100 cast ewes forward again this week, that saw Texel cast tups sell to £81 from GR & RA Surtees, Stodday with Texel ewes to £79 from R & B Parker, Killington. Mule ewes sold to £77 from GS Lander, Warrington with others to £75 from T & CM Kelsall & Sons, Chipping who sold Leicester ewes to £73. Plenty more big ewes sold around the £70 mark. Horned ewes topped at £43 firstly for Scottish Blackfaces from WM Pye, Ashton-with-Stodday with Dalesbreds achieving the same price from T & CM Kelsall & Sons.