BFL gimmer hoggs hit £800 at Skipton

Gimmer hoggs hit £800 at the annual show and sale of Blue Faced Leicester females at Skipton Auction Mart.

Taking the champion and reserve champion title at the show, as well as the two top prices of £800 was father and son duo David and Robin Booth, who run the Smearsett flock of Old Hall Cottage, Feizor.

The title winner (pictured above), 2968/D30, is by the home-bred B13 Smearsett, also known as Black Tag, out of a dam sired by the £17,000 ram, W2 Lunesdale, from Gordon Rawsthorne at Nether Kellet, Carnforth. She sold to the Hewness flock of Kevin and James Wilson at Blubberhouses.

Meanwhile the reserve champion (pictured above), 2968/D43, is by C1 Shafthill, bred by John Smith-Jackson at Haltwhistle, near Hexham, while the dam, by T1 Lunesdale, also bred Peter Fell’s renowned stock tup at Castle Hill, near Ulverston. She also sold for £800 and goes to join the Micklaw flock of Will Wildman in Kirkby Malham.

Other leading prices on the day included £650 for the first prize in-lamb female.  This 2-shear ewe 2782/B24, came from the Chelker flock of Joe and Nancy Throup at Berwick Intake Farm, Draughton. By the Dalehead sire 2945/A1 and in-lamb to the Cumbrian sire Y5 Hewgill, she sold locally  to James Middleton, of Arncliffe.

Next best at £600 was a home-bred gimmer hogg from the Ilkley Moor flock of 2011 show champions Ellis Brothers, of Addingham Moorside. By Ilkley Moor B23, a son of Neil Marston’s Z4 Hundith, and out of an ewe by the Ellis’s own Kirkby Redgate sire, she found a new home with Brontë breeder A P Percival, who runs a small flock of Blue Faced Leicesters at Haworth and also purchased last year’s title winner.

The show was judged by Chris Heath of Macclesfield, who breeds Blue Faced Leicester, Mule, Swaledale and Beltex.