Skipton’s Stapleton leads the pack in annual breeding sheep show and sale
Skipton Auction Mart was bustling on the May Day bank holiday once again with the annual sale of breeding sheep added to the mix.
There was a strong turnout of 2,209 hoggs and lambs and geld gimmer hoggs, slightly down on the previous year’s record entry.
Skipton’s John Stapleton was again leader of the pack as in previous years, taking first prize with a pen of 10 Continental geld gimmer hoggs and first and second prize for two pens of Continental hoggs and lambs.
His
homebred Texel hoggs with Beltex lambs at £290 were the sale leaders, bought by
David and Dan Jackson of Northwich, and his run created an enormous amount of
interest.
Buyers were a little more cautious than of late, but still the strong
outfits of Mule and Continental hoggs with lambs at foot were good to sell.
David Coates, of Coniston Cold, had a champion pen of Mule Hoggs which
led that section at £255 per outfit, selling to Henry Ellison of Embsay, whilst
Robert Johnson, of Felliscliffe, Harrogate, had a run of 150 Mule Hoggs with
lambs, winning third prize and selling away to a top of £240 per outfit.
The other red rosette winner was Ian Manning, of Wrexham, who came out
top in the geld mule gimmer hoggs category, selling for £128 per head, with Bolton
Abbey’s JC Crabtree & Son second, selling for £132 per head, and JF &
HES Caton of Cowan Bridge third, selling for £130.
JF Norcross of Cononley claimed second prize for his pen of 10 Charollais
geld gimmer hoggs, which sold for £120, while Messrs Nutter of Burnley were
third. Richard Hanson, of Westow, Ryedale, was second in the mule hoggs and
lambs category, selling for £202 per outfit. Thomas Boothman of Linton was
third in the Continental hoggs and lambs section and sold one pen for £265 and
two for £250.
The geld hoggs were judged by NEMSA's Skipton branch chairman Kevin
Wilson, of Blubberhouses, and the hoggs and lambs by Hannah Brown, of Newton-le-Willows.
Several good runs of hoggs with lambs are already entered for next week’s
sale which will be at the usual time of 11:30am in The Lingfield Sale ring. Entries
need to be received by 12noon on Friday for inclusion in the weekly online
catalogue.
The show was
sponsored by British Wool Marketing Board, Tops Tags and Armstrong Watson
Accountants. Full prices and averages are at www.ccmauctions.com