While the larger entry of 1,738 prime sheep at CCM Skipton’s weekly sale, on Monday (June 10), met with a reduced trade, smart spring lambs remained comparatively good to sell, the 723-strong entry achieving an overall average of £90.30 a head, or 230.7p/kg.
The leading by-weight performers at a solid 327p/kg, or £121 a head, came from Whalley’s Richard and Mark Ireland, their Texel pen joining regular buyer Vivers Scotlamb, of Annan. Father and son Joe and Trevor Stoney, of Pateley Bridge, were again to the fore with the top price per head Texel pen at £123 each. They joined Kendalls Farm Butchers for its shops in Pateley Bridge and Harrogate.
Not far behind at £120 each was the top price per head Suffolk pen from Steeton’s Mark Evans, which sold to Saltaire butcher Richard Binns, with G Beresford & Son, of Hellifield, producing the leading by-weight Suffolk price at 289.5p/kg. These fell to Ali Shan, of Yorkshire Halal Meat Suppliers for its supermarket in Alice Street, Keighley.
Mr Shan also demonstrated his generosity in support of charity when paying £100, or a heady 416.7p/kg, for a single Swaledale prime hogg from Nidderdale sheep farmer Richard Harker, of Raygill House Farm, Ramsgill.
He explained that the sheep had wandered off the moor on to his farm with no markings and no tagging. With no one stepping forward the claim it, Mr Harker decided to offer the lamb for sale at Skipton in aid of charity, with proceeds going to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Prime lambs generally sold at 225-240p/kg, with commercial lambs achieving 215p-230p/kg.
A large show for the time of year of almost 700 prime hoggs maintained the previous week’s trade to average £70.39 per head, or 174.0p/kg.
Scottish vendors EJ & AM Fox, of Newton Saint Boswells in Roxburghshire, achieved a number of top price coups with a Texel pen at 202.4p/kg, a Suffolk pen at £100 per head, or 191.3p/kg, a Scottish Black Face pen at £74 each, or 189.7p/kg, and a Cheviot pen at £75 each.
GW Thackray, of Harewood, was also prominent when presenting the top price per head Texels at £95, the top price per head Mules at £85 and the top price by weight Cheviots at 179.5p/kg.
A total of 172 cast ewes and rams was also on offer, with cull ewes selling to a high of £101.50 per head for a pen from RW & B Chapman, of Skyreholme, and an overall per head average of £54.28. Cast rams averaged £85.13, peaking at £90 for a Blue Faced Leicester from S & D Robinson, of Litton. The Chapmans also sold a Lleyn ram at £89.50.