Calves & Weanling

The weekly sale of calves at Lancaster saw less numbers about this week, after last weeks bumper entry with the majority being a month to six weeks old. The few older on offer today saw three month old Hereford bulls from TE&M Kidd, Ellel to £560 with others from the same good home £510. Wallbank Farm, Over Wyresdale had their usual run of quality calves, topping at £445 for a two month old British Blue bull. Also breaking the £400 barrier was WG Farms, Cockerham at £420 for three month old Charolais bulls. Aberdeen Angus bulls topped at £400 from RE&PM Miller, Barnacre with other British Blue bulls from JP&C Robson, Catterall at £380. WG Farms continued their good day with Charolais heifers at £300. JP&C Robson, Catterall sold one month old British Blue heifers at £250 with other month old British Blue heifers at £235 twice from RT Halhead, Cockerham.
A handful of dairy bred calves in today, all about a month old, topping at £82 from WN&D Smith & Sons, Cockerham.
Just one stirk in today from H&SD Cornthwaite, Nateby which sold at £300 for a Holstein Friesian bull at five months old.
Next weeks sale includes the monthly stirk sale with stirks, which will go through the main ring immediately following store cattle.

Dairy Cattle

Today’s Dairy sale was in the hands of guest auctioneer Bradley Thompson, who had a wonderful group of Dairy Cattle forward to sell.
B&V Swann was first in the ring with 2 Pedigree New Calved Heifers; Carwood Sassafras Honeybee 136 giving 32lts and Carwood Sassafras Fuchsia 72 giving 30lts both selling to todays top price of £2200 both going to the same home. Also at £2200 was Drinkall Bros with Pennie Poppy 903 giving 31lts selling to a returning customer. Closely followed by MJ&H Atkinson with Wyredale Pursuit Bettina 155 giving 27lts selling to £2100 joining a local herd. R&K Jenkinson had their usual consignment of heifers and cows forward, with a freshly calved 6th calver giving 39lts selling to £1750 and a newly calved heifer giving 29lts selling to £1850 both going to the same home. More Dairy Cattle could have been sold today, with buyers leaving with empty trailers.
Next Dairy sale is on Friday 10th March at 11am. Entries to the office by Monday 6th March.

Store Cattle

The weekly store cattle sale at Lancaster saw a similar number forward to last week with more meat on offer today and the trade exceeding vendors expectations yet again. Steers averaged a cosmic £1370 and heifers an eye watering £1296.
The headlines this week goes to L Parson & Sons, Levens with a single twenty one month old, yes you read that right! A twenty one month old Limousin steer achieved £1900. This good home also had a trio of Aberdeen Angus steers at £1880. Other Aberdeen Angus steers from T&E Garlick & Sons, Freckleton sold at £1800, this home also sold Limousin steers at £1680. Charolais steers saw twenty three month olds at £1730 from WA Hodgson, Whinfell. Adam Stafford, Out Rawcliffe saw his consignment of cattle to £1640 for Hereford steers. Other cattle flying the flag for the Fylde coast saw KH Holden & Son, Pilling with British Blue steers at £1630. Weekly store cattle supporters AJ&D Knowles, New Hutton saw his trailer load of cattle peak at £1580 also for British Blue steers.
Dairy bred steers saw A&E Clarkson, Thurnham with a single Friesian at £1720 with R&E Ladds, Kendal not far behind at £1680. Regular consigners EE Thornton & Son, Heaton sold a pair at £1320.
J&JM Walmsley, Pilling sold a trio of Aberdeen Angus heifers to £1600, with J Oddie & Son, Balderstone not far behind selling a pen of three at £1570. JA&SM Allen, Windermere took the trip south down the M6, with his consignment topping at £1510 for a pen of four British Blues. Also showing British Blue cattle this week was JB Moore, Grange Over Sands not far behind at £1500, this good home also had Aberdeen Angus heifers to £1470 with TD&V Whittaker making the same price for a pen of four.
More cattle are required next week to satisfy our ringside of buyers, eager to buy replacement cattle to keep their sheds full, as the current beef trade hits new highs.

OTM Cattle

Lancaster is certainly the place to sell your OTM cattle with customers returning who had previous sold cattle direct, the “sell live and thrive” motto certainly is proving correct with just short of 100 going through the bottom ring with trade hitting extreme rates. Ballacutchel Farms, Isle of Man stole the headlines this week with their consignment of beef bred OTM cattle, selling Charolais cows at 254.5p/kg or £2074.18 with other Charolais cows at 249.5p/kg or £2018.46. Other beef bred cows sold at 249.5p/kg for Limousins from PJ Holt & Sons, Thornton. Dairy bred OTM cows today saw an average of 177p/kg or £1180 per head, with the majority being straight out of the parlour cattle. Top of the tree in this section today was WG Farms, Cockerham with a young Friesian cow at 234.5p/kg or £1682 with others at £1662 from MG & J Parker, Wennington. Also breaking the £1600 barrier at £1620. Many more Friesian bred OTM cows broke the £1500 barrier with too many to mention.
OTM heifers saw Aberdeen Angus’s from WA Cardwell, Stalmine at 239.5p/kg or £1621 with Herefords at 254p/kg or £1445.56 from Mason, Birkland Barrow. Friesian heifers from R Gibson & Son, Kendal at 221p/kg or £1196.10.
Just one cast steer in today from A Kirkby & Co, Pilling at 249.5p/kg or £1803.89 for an Aberdeen Angus.
A handful of bulls in today topping at 289.5p/kg or £1959.92 per head for a British Blue at twenty one months old, with other young bulls at 259.5p/kg or £1868 for an Aberdeen Angus with OTM bulls to £1515 from Ballacutchel Farms, Isle of Man for a Simmental.