Fortnightly Catalogue Sale of Store Lambs. Forward: 6496 Head (Overall av. £56.38). A very useful entry with 883 Horned and 2027 Mule and Masham lambs sold in the entry of 6496 with 48 separate buyers represented at the ringside. First cross Texel and Suffolk lambs worked into a very good trade with strong lambs generally £65-£75 and wintering lambs not far behind at £55-£65. Strong end of the Mules £62-£66 and the horned lambs a similar trade to last fortnight although the run was not as strong with less meat in the mix. Top end Beltex lambs continue to find favour with numerous bidders with an average of £70.58 and lambs both short and long keep comfortably into £70 all day.

FORWARD: 434 Breeding Sheep & Rams. A flying finish at the Final Tuesday Breeding Sheep Sale of Ewes and Rams. Topping the trade of Mule Shearlings was J Brown from Thirsk, selling a pen at £130 and a pen at £122, then J Robertshaw sold a pen of Texel x for £130.

Craven Dairy Auction (7 head) A tidy entry for the twice monthly Craven Dairy Sale sponsored by NMR (represented by Helen Whitaker) and the show judged by Martyn Jennings. The show champion was a lovely pedigree newly calven heifer from M Baul & Sons, Ravensgate Herd in Bishop Thornton. Sired by Welcome Armitage Pesky PLI +£410 and out of the Blossom family, she sold calved 20 days giving 32 litres at £2100 locally to John Howard. Messrs Baul sold another newly calven heifer out of the Honesty family by Model Man giving 32 litres being calved 23 days, she sold for £1800.

Forward: 46 Prime cattle comprising 17 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 1 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 28 Cast Cattle. 3,456 Prime Sheep comprising 2929 Prime Lamb, 527 Cast Ewes & Rams. 75 Rearing Calves. 7 Dairy Cattle. 2 Loads of produce

Blossom blooms for Peter Baul at Craven Dairy Auction A fifth Craven Dairy Auction championship of 2019 was clinched by the Ravensgate pedigree herd of Bishop Thornton’s Peter Baul at Skipton Auction Mart’s latest fortnightly Monday show and sale (Oct 28) It fell to Ravensgate Pesky Blossom 199, a 20 days calved, 32 litre heifer by the Genus sire, Welcome Armitrage Pesky, which claimed top call of £2,100 when knocked down to regular local buyer John Howard, of Heslaker.

Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle. Forward: 584 head of cattle. Comprising: 580 Feeding Cattle (79 Young Bulls, 60 Beef Feeding Cows, 441 Bullocks & Heifers) & 4 Breeding Cattle.

ANNUAL SALE OF RIGISTERED DALESBRED SHEEP - The top price at the Annual Sale of Dalesbred sheep was 780gns paid by John Horner of FW Horner & Son of Buckden for the second prize shearling ram sold by Mesrs T&A Hird of Yockenthwaite. Paul Bowden of Oughtershaw sold a shearling ram for 600gns to Godfrey Haygarth of Wigglesworth who was recapturing some of his old bloodlines. The prize winners all got away well in the ram section and a small entry of good quality females were headed up by a pen of 3 crop ewes from the Coates family from Rainscar at £123.

FORWARD: 2,233 Breeding Sheep & Gimmer Lambs. (2,107 Gimmer Lambs and 126 Dalesbred Sheep). CCM Auctions conducted their fourth fortnightly sale of Gimmer Lambs at Skipton on Tuesday where 2107 head were forward for sale. Trade was not as buoyant as seen at the third sale, however, the lambs were a far more seasonal selection representing vendors last round up of gimmer lambs for this year. Better lambs on the day were in the 70’s, best runner in the 60’s, middle types of runners either side of £60 and smaller end or commercial sorts generally in the early to mid 50’s. An overall sale average of £60.39 was recorded. The sale of Hill rams saw a nice selection forward and better end of rams on offer at 200gn to 300gns.

Hirds hit 780gns high with shearling ram at Skipton Dalesbred highlight A solid top price of 780gns was seen at the Dalesbred Sheep Breeders’ Association’s final seasonal show and sale of rams and females at Skipton Auction Mart. (Tuesday, October 22) It fell to the second prize shearling ram, sired by a home-bred ram from Yorkshire Dales father and son, Stuart and Edward Hird, of Yockenthwaite. Himself a son of a tup bred by John Harrison in Blubberhouses, he has been successfully used for several years.

Forward: 34 Prime cattle comprising 17 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 2 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 12 Cast Cattle. 3,292 Prime Sheep comprising 2,832 Prime Lamb, 460 Cast Ewes & Rams. 46 Rearing Calves. 4 Loads of produce.

Rearing Calves to £365 (46) B&W av £45 Cont av £221 Native av £160 Very mixed show of calves this week, topping the trade was Mr JC Marshall at £365 for a Blue Bull followed by another at £360 from Church Farm Enterprises. Blue Bulls averaged £265 for 14 of them. Blue Heifers topped at £240 and averaged £170 for 16. B&W average this week was £45 which was very respectable with mainly smaller calves on offer. More calves required next week – Please call Kyle with expected entries: 07538 539077

Fortnightly Catalogue Sale of Store Lambs & Feeding Ewes Forward: 7147 Head – 7,056 Store Lambs & 91 Feeding Ewes. Store Lamb Overall av £56.56.

FORWARD: 1121 Breeding Ewes & 87 Rams. A good sale today with ewes of all classes in nice demand. Older Mule ewes in good condition from late 70’s to early 90’s, whilst commercial Mule shearlings were around £120. Continental bred sheep were a mixed show, some good Blue Texels as part of a dispersal from Ronnie Bailey, Reeth topped at £180 for shearlings and £160 for Ewes whilst R Sadler topped the sale at £200 for gimmer lambs.

Another Robert Crisp victory at Craven Dairy Auction Dales farmer Robert Crisp, of Nelson House, Calton, bagged another show victory with a newly calven heifer at Skipton Auction Mart’s latest Craven Dairy Auction. (Mon, Oct 14)

Forward: 64 Prime cattle comprising 20 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 3 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 41 Cast Cattle. 4,614 Prime Sheep comprising 4,011 Prime Lambs, 603 Cast Ewes & Rams. 77 Rearing Calves. 4 Dairy Cattle. 8 Loads of produce.