Coar blimey! Darwen couple clinch inaugural prime lamb show double at Skipton
Lancashire husband and wife sheep farmers, David and Laura Coar, of Yew Tree Farm, Darwen, landed their first-ever prime lambs championship at Skipton Auction Mart’s July show, also picking up the reserve championship for good measure with a brace of five home-bred Beltex-cross pens.
While the Coars have clinched Skipton rosettes in the past, this was their inaugural title win with a 42kg pen first chosen by show judge Tim Hamlet and later claimed by him in the sales ring for his family-run Hamlets Butchers in Garstang at joint top call of £139 per head, or 331p/kg, the day’s leading by-weight price.
The victors were out of Texel-cross ewes by a first time used Beltex tup from the Quarrymount flock of Irish breeder Brian Matthews in Co Offaly, with the 45kg reserve champions, by a ram from well-known Cheshire breeder Paul Slater and again out of Texel-cross ewes, making £124 per head, or 275.6p/kg, when joining regular wholesale buyers Vivers Scotlamb in Annan.
Mr and Mrs Coar have been farming together for 20 years, establishing their sheep holding eight years ago. They currently have 250 Texel-cross ewes at home.
Butcher Mr Hamlet was in action again when also claiming the third prize Continental pen, 38kg Beltex-crosses from Whalley father and son, Richard and Mark Ireland, their first prime lambs of the season, at £118 each, or 310.5p/kg. They also sold 36kg Texels at 226p/kg and some very smart 37kg Texels at 264p/kg.
With an increased entry of 20 pens of show lambs, the prize class for Suffolk-cross was won by James Earnshaw from Flasby, these falling for £99, or 225p/kg, to John Bowling, of Ashton-in-Makerfield, who also paid £99.50, or 210.5p/kg, for the third prize pen from Beamsley’s Alan Middleton. Top price in show class of £109, or 213.7p/kg, fell to the second prize pen from Draughton’s John Turner, claimed by regular buyer Andrew Atkinson, from Felliscliffe.
Local breeder Robert Crisp, of Calton, picked up first and second prizes in the Mules show class, both falling to the same purchaser, David Palmer, of Scarborough, at £80, or 190.5p/kg, and
£74, or 194.7p/kg.
Prime sheep numbers saw a vast increase, with over 3,000 prime and cast sheep penned for sale for the first time this season. The 2,451 prime lambs among them were reasonably well sold, with the mart average of 217p/kg, or £90.39 per head, comparing well against the England and Wales average for the day of 205.5p/kg.
Also worthy of note was the wide cross-section of lambs on parade, with overall averages of 216p/kg for 1,595 Texel-cross, 204pkg for 483 Suffolk and Down- cross, and 251p/kg for 306 Beltex-cross, plus a few Mules at 190p/kg and 49 Rouge/Charollais at 214p/kg. The second joint top £139 per head price came for some heavy Texels from Thomas Boothman, of Linton.
A few lightweight lambs just a touch a short of meat sold around the 190p/kg mark, but better meated types were over 200p/kg. Really smart Beltex-cross in the 38-40kg weight range saw a total of 18 pens selling from 270-331p/kg and 34 pens from 250-269p/kg. Heavier lambs were easy to place, with just 291 lambs scaling 46kg or more, but averaging 228p/kg, reflecting current market demand.
Twenty-five prime hoggs sold to a top of £76 per head, while almost 600 cast sheep penned for sale saw cull ewes average £79.34 per head overall, trading to highs of £139.50 and £137.50 per head for Texel pens from William Watson, of Hellifield. Cast rams averaged £53.57.