Strong prime sheep trade at Skipton despite more lambs forward

A total of 3,881 prime sheep, more than 1,000 up on the previous week and including 3,366 spring lambs, packed the pens at CCM Skipton’s weekly Monday sale.
Trade remained good for the time of year when achieving an overall average selling price of £84.50 a head, or 215.3p/kg, with 40kg-plus lambs in demand at 210-230p/kg, as were heavies around 50kg at 200-220p/kg, including plenty of pens at £105 to £110.

Well-fleshed or smarter handy weight 38/39kg lambs also sold well, with three-quarters bred types making 230/250p/kg. There was also noticeable export trade for nice 34-37kg lambs, though here again they needed to offer good meat.
The day’s per head high of £116 was achieved by a Texel pen from A and CL Gray, Summerbridge, with a Beltex offering from T and C Robinson, Tosside, heading the by-weight prices at 274.4p/kg.

A large entry of more than 500 cast sheep found a nice level trade, with cull ewes averaging £44.02 a head and cast rams £68.17 each.

Cast cows average £835
The 36-strong weekly turnout of prime cattle at CCM Skipton included 29 cast cattle and three mature bulls. Cull cow prices were again solid, achieving an overall selling average of £835.66 a head, more than £30 up on the week, or 134.19p/kg, on a par with the previous sale.
The top a head price at £1,237, or 175.5p/kg, fell to a Blonde-x from James and Deborah Ogden, Austwick, with the leading by-weight achiever at 177.5p/kg, or £1,019, another Blonde-x from D and S Hollings, Peckett Well. Six entries achieved four-figure prices, among them two black and whites from Pat and Neil Gratton, Brimham Rocks, at £1,154 and £1,113.
The pick of the mature bulls at £1,436, or 141.5p/kg, was a Charolais from Howard Fearnley, Barden, while in the under 30-month classes, a Simmental bull from Derek Wells, Wilsden, sold for £1,290, or 167.5p/kg.

Rearing calf trade unstoppable
Rearing calf trade was strong for all classes, with demand for Continentals once again relentless and peaking at £495 for a top-notch under 42-day British Blue-x bull from Cononley’s James Gooch.

Heifer calf prices topped at £450 for another British Blue-x from Eshton’s John Rushton, who also headed the native breed prices at £280 with a tremendous five-week old Angus bull calf.
Black and white trade was robust too, with David Holmes, Otley, and Pat and Neil Gratton, Brimham Rocks, performing notably well with under six-weeks entries that reached £180 and £160 respectively, with a respectable overall class average of £90.07 per head. The total entry of 46 youngsters averaged a shade over £166 a head.