A good November sheep sale for numbers, but lambs were definitely smaller than of late. Anything with power/quality, or both was good to sell, best lowland lambs £65 to £70 and best Mules £60 - £62, medium lambs probably dearer than of late, whilst a larger proportion of small wintering than usually seen made up the rest of the entry and reflected in the overall average accordingly.

The Special Lingfields Fair Sale of Breeding Sheep & Gimmer Lambs & Rams took place today at Lunchtime in the Sheep Ring with 1,417 head presented. As ever at this sale there was a good entry of nearly 1,000 Mule Gimmer Lambs, our fifth sale of the season, and trade was on a high note, averaging £71.85 (+£13.70 on 2015). There were several pens of nice lambs that made £90 plus, topping at £105 from JA Stoney & Son and M Ryder & Son, and £100 from Richard Close.  Masham Gimmer Lambs averaged £82.13. Horned Ewes were a mixed show, Roy Nelson topped the sale at £100, £80 and £70 with Andrew Haggas making £88. Swaledale Gimmer Lambs topped £82 from A&PM Hall, £75 RW&B Chapman and £70 W&SM Bilsborough. Dalesbred Sheep topped at £90 for a pen of shearlings from V Verity & Son. A good enquiry for Continental Gimmer Lambs saw trade peak at £103 for Texel crosses from Frank Throup, £96 D&FJ Leeming and £94 M Harker of Wycollar. Rams opened up the sale and anything with power and style was a sharp trade with a BFL at 520gns from Roy Nelson being top priced ram.

PRINCIPLE PRICES

Texel – Av £57.81

£73.50 Townhead Farm; £69 PR Wearmouth; £69 ES Fearnley; £68 I Wright; £68 SI Horn; £67.50 D Wood   

Suffolk – Av £60.72

£66 RD Metcalfe & Son; £65x2 SI Horn; £65 J Binns; £65 N Binns; £64, £63.50 TE Walker; £63.50 JS Throup

Mule – Av £54.96

£62 WM&E Dugdale; £61 A Wilson; £61, £60 RJ Schofield; £60 KM&SM Sayer; £60 SL&SD Lund

Swaledale – Av £30.67

£45 W&SM Bilsborough; £39.50 RJ Gardt; £38 A Wilson & Son; £36.50 J Rayner & Son; £36 E Pennock & Son;  

Dalesbred – Av £35.42

£44.50 K Lister & Son; £34.50 WI Thwaite; £32 FW Horner & Son; £29 JG&B Brown & Sons; £20 JA Stoney;

Charolais – Av £58.23

£68, £63.50 DN &JM Molyneux; £62 Hayton & Stocks; £62 K Dickinson; £58 S Horn; £58 J Bradley;  

Lonk – Av £42.20

£48 £43 Beeston Hall; £41.50 F&R Fielden;

Beltex – Av £61.26

£71 MP &NEG Burnop; £70 JA Stoney & Son; £69.50 E Pennock; £69.50 J Brotherton; £68 I&M Lancaster;

Cheviot – Av £42.03

£60 K Lister & Son; £55.50 J Shorrock; £55.50 E Shorrock; £55 RD Holroyd; £53 K Stewart;

Beulah – Av £49.88

£53 D&D Prince; £49.50 FM Shepherd;

BREEDING SHEEP

Rams

BFL ram lamb to 280gns

BFL to 520gns

Suffolk to 200gns

Texel to 440gns

Charolais to 150gns

Swaledale to £150gns

Beltex to 180gns 

Gimmer Lambs

MGL to £105 av £71.85

Texel GL to £103 av £83.56

Masham to £84 av £82

Swaledale GL to £82 av £41

Dalesbred to £31 av £27

LLeyn to £84 av £77

Zwartbles to £72

Ewes

Dalesbred Shlg to £90

Swaledale 2 Shr to 88

Swaledale 3 Shr to £100

Texel Aged to £82

Swale to £80

BFL to £110

Herdwick to £59