John Bland five-timer at Skipton ewes with lambs bank holiday show
Derbyshire’s John Bland notched up a fabulous five-timer on his annual visit to Skipton Auction Mart’s late season bank holiday show and sale of single ewes with lambs at foot. (Monday, May 28)
Mr Bland, of Crowden House Farm, Crowden, won the horned show class for the fifth year in succession with a Swaledale shearling ewe by a home-bred ram with her single pure-bred gimmer lamb at foot, got by a Paul Ewbank tup. The pair sold locally for £225 to Jeff Throup on Silsden Moor.
With his yearly consignment of Swaledale outfits from his Crowden flock, Mr Bland, accompanied by shepherd Richard Saxon, again clinched all three prizes in his show class. Runner-up was another pure-bred Swaledale ewe by a Penrith-based Kevin Bennett tup, with the lamb got by a ram from Middleton-in-Teesdale’s Peter Walton, while standing third was a Swaledale ewe with her Mule lamb at foot, this by a Richard Saxon tup.
The Bland run topped at £270, the day’s leading breeding sheep price – the buyer was Bentham’s Graham Jackson - and £255, both for ewes with single Mule gimmer lambs.
First prize in the lowland sheep show class fell to a pen of five home-bred Texel-cross hoggs with single Beltex-cross lambs from local breeder, Michael Daggett, of Wharfe House Farm, Hartlington. The lambs were by a first time used tup from Chris Windle, of Skipton, bought at the mart’s annual breed highlight last year. The red rosette winners sold for a section top of £250 per outfit to Geoff and Margaret Booth in Lothersdale.
Mr Daggett also claimed second prize in the same class with a Mule ewe with Texel lamb, which made £215. He sold other pens at £220 and £195 per outfit.
All classes of breeding sheep, 258 outfits in total, sold to an improved trade on the week, with Richard Stockdale, of Burnsall, selling pens of Texel hoggs with lambs at £210 and £200, while Robert Johnson, of Felliscliffe, also chipped in with a £190 pen. A run of Herdwick ewes with lambs from TCR Benson, of Great Langdale, topped at £110.
Also penned for sale were 1,398 prime sheep, among them 412 Spring lambs, which proved better to sell than anticipated, levelling at £115.64 per head, or 276p/kg across the board.
Top price per kilo came for a pen of five 42kg Texel/Beltex crosses from Nidderdale’s Joe and Trevor Stoney, of Bewerley, which fell to regular retail butcher buyer, Hamlets in Garstang, for 354p/kg, or £149 each. Plenty of smart lambs made over £3 per kilo. The leading gross price of £150 per head fell to a brace of Suffolk pens from Steeton’s Mark Evans, both selling locally to Skipton-based Swaledale Foods.
While the 659 prime hoggs, or old season lambs, met a lesser trade on the week, the better end still made 210-220p/kg, commercial sorts 190-200p/kg and lean types 160-180p/kg. The overall selling average was £98.53 per head, or 197.52p/kg.
Almost 300 cast sheep produced an overall selling average of £68.26 for cull ewes, with a top of £116.50 per head for Texels from Mark Crabtree, of Kettlesing. Cast rams averaged £77.81.