The upbeat demand for Swaledale rams continued at the breed association’s final major fixture of the season when bidding reached £28,000 at the two-day sale at Hawes.
Averages were up on both days with the initial offering of 335 rams averaging £1432 – up £160 on the year followed by an average of £1401 for 308 rams – a lift of £288.
The top call came for a son of the influential ram Aygill Viceroy – already the grandsire of the £47,000 top price paid at the breed’s Kirkby Stephen sale the previous week. This time it was a ram from 30-year-old Paul Ewbank’s 400-ewe flock at Middlesmoor near Harrogate that led the trade. Paul’s father Spence has a quarter share in Viceroy.
The sale topper is out of a shearling ewe sired by a home-bred tup going back to the Mossdale breeding of well known breeder Patrick Sowerby, Hawes.
“It was tremendous to top the sale, but Viceroy is producing some outstanding tups,” said Paul Ewbank. The ram, which was unplaced in the show classes, was bought jointly by Stuart Harker (Kendal), Richard Hargreaves (Burnley) and Ken Slack (Appleby).
David and Heather Allison from Barnard Castle. Co Durham sold a ram at £26,000 in a three-way split between John Richardson (Ghyll House), Bobby Blades (Richmond) and Thomas Ivison (Hawes).
The ram has proved the value of a shrewd purchase made in his sire bought from Eric Coates’ flock that only cost £1500. The £26,000 tup is out of a five-shear show winning ewe that has accounted for several titles this summer and is by a Mossdale sire.
Stanley and Pat Brogden’s flock from Kirkby Stephen also produced a £26,000 tup with one by a ram from the Ewbank family’s flock that cost £13,000 and out of a Kisden sired ewe. Joint buyers were Patrick Sowerby (Hawes) and the Nelson family from Bull and Cave, Clapham.
John Richardson had a £20,000 deal selling a shearling to Derbyshire breeder Paul Hallam. By a tup from the flock of Stuart Harker, the ram is out of a ewe by a £10,000 sire that has bred a string of good progeny that have sold to £7000.
(Hawes Farmers Auction Mart).
