Prime Lambs

Lancaster Auction today hosted its annual Christmas Show and Sale of Prime Lambs. There was a tremendous entry of forty pens of lambs forward for our judge, Michael Lomax to cast his expert eye over. The championship rosette was awarded to GR & A Foy, Conder Green for impressively the seventh year running. This pen of five Dutch Texel lambs weighing 43kg sold to 307p/kg or £132 with the Reserve Champions, also from the same home weighing 42kg sold to £121 purchased by Michael Lomax on behalf of Gregory Williams Butchers of Lancaster. The first prized pair of Beltex sired lambs was also consigned by GR & A Foy, Conder Green weighing 40kg selling to £123 with the second prize pair being awarded to PD Pye, Abbeystead selling to £121 purchased by Michael Lomax on behalf of Kennedy Butchers, Morecambe who also purchased the third prized pair of Beltex lambs from GR & A Foy, Conder Green for £119. The upland classes saw the Mule class won by RH & C Ayrton, Abbeystead selling 45kg mules to £93.50. The Horned lambs first place rosette was awarded to Swaledale lambs from T Ayrton & Son, Over Wyresdale selling to £80 weighing 39kg. The Cheviot lamb class was won by Nathan Allen of Low Moor Howe selling 42kg Cheviots to £90.
A bumper entry of 925 lambs forward was met by strong demand from buyers with an overall market average of 208p/kg with many consignments of hill lambs forward this week. There was an SSQ average of 212p/kg.
The trade saw plenty of pens of continental heavy weight lambs regularly selling in excess of 200p/kg. Handy weight lambs continue to be in strong demand with continental lambs often selling in excess of the 200p/kg mark. Mule lambs regularly selling over the 200p/kg mark with horned lambs selling in the region of 200p/kg.

Cast Sheep

Lancaster enjoyed a strong trade once again with cast sheep. Leading the way was Beltex ewes from A Fare, Blackpool selling to £137 and £123. Texel ewes peaked at £129 from J & H Huddleston, Brookhouse. Plenty of strong continental ewes selling between £105 and £120. Mule ewes sold to £77 from MJ & LC Lund, Quernmore followed by £76 from HJ & BE Kelsall, Gressingham. Horned ewes sold to £77 for Rough Fells from G Blacklidge, Chorley.
More tups coming forward which topped at £120 for Texel’s from Fred Carr, Arkholme. Cheviot tups sold to £109 and £106 from A & J Smith, Ingleton.

Store Lambs

The fortnightly sale of store lambs at Lancaster consisted mainly of forward short keep lambs selling to a very buoyant trade as seen at many store lamb sales with an average of £80.61. It was Suffolk lambs that lead the way selling to £94 from PG Thornton, Scorton with others to £90.50 from HJ & BE Kelsall, Gressingham. Texel store lambs sold to £89 from PD Anderton, Scorton with Continental lambs selling to £86.50 from JM Kelsall and Son, Quernmore. Cheviot lambs sold to £74.50 from SE & J Gorst, Littledale.