Breeding ewe uncertainty
Breeding ewe uncertainty
HAWES livestock market in the heart of the Yorks Dales hopes that DEFRA acts quickly to decide whether breeding ewe sales are allowed to take place this autumn.
Maurice Hall, the markets manager, says it is still unclear whether it will be allowed to hold any breeding ewe sales this year, but he is sure there will be plenty of demand for stock this back-end.
"We hope to reopen as a store cattle, prime cattle and sheep market when we are allowed.
"But we could do with the dates for when breeding and store sheep sales will be allowed to restart so we can make plans accordingly. There will be sheep to trade this autumn," he says.
In its biggest sale of the season in September, Hawes market clears 35,000 breeding sheep in one day. To cope with as many animals as this many traditional breeding ewe sales use temporary grass sites with wooden penning. This contravenes rules laid out in DEFRAs provisional document outlining conditions for livestock markets to operate.
However, Mr Hall doesnt believe this will have too much of an impact this year. "I dont expect the temporary penning issue to be so much of a problem as there will be reduced numbers of breeding ewes available." *