PRIME lamb trade at Skipton Auction Mart stepped up yet another gear on Monday, as the 2,258 prime and lightweight hoggs forward averaged over £3 per kilo at 302p/kg (SQQ 308p), or £130.44 per head. All classes were dearer by some margin, especially heavy lambs and commercial handy to medium weights, with 37-43kg Continentals and other lowland-bred lambs short of requirements and more required each week. The strength of demand for heavies was clearly illustrated when lowland lambs over 52kg sold to a weight range average of 280p/kg, or £152 per head, with the Hutchinson family from Faceby in the north-west corner of the North Yorks Moors returning with multiple top-notch pens across most classes.
THE 3,747 prime sheep penned for sale at Skipton Auction Mart’s latest weekly Monday sale comprised 3,274 prime and lightweight hoggs, along with 473 cast ewes and rams. Numbers showed the anticipated seasonal increase with sheep from root crop feeders now coming on stream and available for sale, especially from vendors from the east of the country, with several wagons arriving from Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and the Vale of York, supplemented by regular consignments from Cheshire, Lancashire and northern vendors. Handy-weighted sheep were good to sell as expected, while quality runs of fed mediums were in high demand. Heavies were also good to sell, although commercial mediums and heavies were probably a shade less on price, while the smart end were not up to the recent extreme high rates seen in previous weeks, with 350p-380p/kg the mark for the best end.
What’s more, they also added the reserve championship for good measure. (Mon, Feb 1) With ‘drop and go’ currently in place for all vendors, the Smiths, of Lodge Farm, Masongill, above Ingleton, were unable to be present in person. It meant they were not there to witness their latest coup when they secured principal honours with a brace of Limousin-cross entries. Tapped out by show judge Simon Barker, who runs the mart-based Barkers Yorkshire Butchers, the overall victor was a 555kg red bullock. The reserve was a 550kg black heifer. Both beasts figured among a total of ten purchases by regular weekly buyer, Ralph Pearson Wholesale Butchers.
Phil Gregory, of DA Gregory & Sons Butchers in St James Square, Bacup, made another successful foray across the border when securing three entries at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday prime cattle sale, two of which were high quality retail heifers both selling at top per kilo call of 260.5p. (Mon, Jan 18) First up was a 560kg Limousin-cross from regular Red Rose vendors, RT&J Critchley & Sons in Hutton, Preston, which grossed £1,459, followed by a 535kg British Blue-cross from Keighley’s David Bailey, snapped up at £1,394. James Robertshaw took up his usual position at the ringside, claiming six cattle in total, all for his Robertshaw’s Farm Shop in Thornton and among them the leading price per kilo steer, a 595kg Limousin-cross from mart regulars, Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching, at 254.5p/kg, or £1,514.