Cowperthwaite coup at Skipton Swaledale female highlight Swaledale females took centre stage at Skipton’s Auction Mart’s annual Saturday show and sale of draft ewes and gimmer shearlings, when an increased entry of 3,939 head sold to an overall average of £104.23 per head. (Sat, Oct 3) The cream of the turnout received plenty of interest at the ringside, producing some good top end prices. However, it was a more commercial type of ewe that saw the most disparity in prices on the year, as buyers looked to source the smarter end.

CCM Auctions held their Annual Sale of Rams at Skipton Mart on Friday. With selling today spread across 4 sale rings the market was full to capacity with breeds covering the main sales for Blue Faced Leicesters, Suffolks, Hampshire Downs, Blue Texels and Zwartbles together with second sales for Texels, Charollais, Beltex and other breeds.

Blue Faced Leicesters lead the way at Skipton multi-breed highlight Blue Faced Leicester rams were once again the top performers on price at Skipton Auction Mart’s multi-breed sheep showcase, the annual fixture for pedigree and pure-bred rams and females. (Fri, Oct 3) The day’s leading price of 2,000gns, equalling the top BFL call at the 2014 highlight, fell to the third prize ram lamb from the North Craven-based Smearsett pedigree flock of WA&A Booth, from Old Hall Farm, Feizor. Got with V33 Lunesdale, bred by Gordon Rawsthorne in Nether Kellett, Carnforth, this sire served the Booth family well, being responsible for their first-ever Skipton NEMSA Mule gimmer lamb champions back in 2003. They have since won many NEMSA titles at the North Yorkshire venue.

Hampshire Down females hit 500gns twice at Skipton Top bids of 500gns were paid twice for Hampshire Down females at the breed association’s annual North East region show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart. (Fri, Oct 2) First up at 500gns was the first prize winning Graylen shearling ewe from Cumbrian breeders Graham and Judith Galbraith, in Endmoor, Kendal, who were responsible for the Skipton show champion in both 2012 and 2013.

FORWARD: 682 HEAD OF REGISTERED LLEYN SHEEP CCM Auctions conducted the Annual Sale of MV Acc Registered LLeyn Sheep at Skipton Mart on Thursday for members of The Lleyn Sheep Society. Champion was a shearling Ram (Lot 48) from WJ&DJ Williams which sold for 500gns and joins Miss H Dean of Appleton Roebuck. The Williams family also had the 1st Prize pen of Ewe Lambs these sold for £125 per head and travel to Dunfries with J Kingan. 1st Prize pen of Shearlings came from JK Goldie these sold for £205 per head and join H Metcalfe of Silsden.

Lleyn Society seasonal finale at Skipton ends on a high note The Lleyn Sheep Society’s annual seasonal finale, the registered show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart, finished on an upbeat note, with strong clearance rates seen across all sections. (Thus, Oct 1) An encouraging shearling ram trade produced bids for most entries, with Wharfedale breeders Mark Shields, of Plum Tree Farm, Timble, Otley, topping the section and the day’s selling prices at 1,000gns with his one and only entry, sired by a Laga ram, out of a home-bred ewe. The buyer was North & East Lleyn Breeders Club secretary Linda Barnard, of Hall Farm, Welham, Malton.

MARKET REPORT – WEDNESDAY 30th SEPTEMBER 2015 Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle Forward: 702 head of cattle Comprising: 108 Young Feeding Bulls, 579 Bullocks & Heifers, 3 Feeding Cows & 12 Breeding Cattle.

Forward: 3,037 Breeding Sheep: Comp 1,511 Shearlings & Correct Ewes and Annual sale of 1,526 Broken Mouth Ewes CCM Auctions held their Fortnightly Sale of Breeding Ewes together with The Annual Sale of Broken Mouth Ewes. Trade for the correct and younger lowland sheep was in line with previous sales, whilst the Swaledale Broken Mouthed ewes were in strong demand for both breeding and feeding.

Forward: 76 Prime cattle comprising 15 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos) & 61 Cast Cattle. 4,410 Prime Sheep comprising 4,054 Prime Lambs, 356 Cast Ewes & Rams. 101 Rearing Calves. 51 Dairy Cattle. 6 Loads of Produce.

Rearing Calves to £430 (101) B&W av £68.41 Cont av £325.5 Native av £232 101 calves forward today with trade a touch easier with larger numbers coming forward. Continental heifers would see the most buoyant trade with a number of heifer buyers charging each other for the better end of calves. Dairy bred would remain similar on the week with plane calves looking as dear as anything. £430 stopped the best calf today from Fred Houseman with Colin Whitelock the best of the rest in the bulls at £400 and Richard Sutcliffe topping the heifers at £410. Numbers still in demand with arable buyers returning steadily after a slow drilling.

Success for Calvert family at Craven Dairy Auction A strong show of 51 animals at Monday’s Craven Dairy Auction (September 28) saw success for the Calvert farming family at Skipton Auction Mart. The Calverts exhibited some fine specimens as part of their ongoing dispersal, and claimed both Champion and Reserve. They also secured first, second and third place in the newly calved cows, with Calton Bolton Tanya named the overall champion. The third calver by Sandy Valley Bolton and giving 55 litres, was judged the best on show by judge Wick Williams of Nantwich. It was picked up by Malcom and Stephen Abbott of Dacre for £1,680.

Fortnightly Catalogue Sale of Store Lambs Forward: Head, Overall av £53.96 The fortnightly sale saw 66 buyers operating throughout the course of the day, with long keep wintering lambs noticeably dearer on the fortnight. Mule lambs averaged £50.97 with a higher percentage of small lambs in the sample but plenty of competition for medium keep mule lambs which topped at £59 from John Schindler of Thorpe for Lonk bred mules and £56 for 179 from Granville and Paul Fairburn, Marriforth for Swale bred Mules and last man in the ring V Verity & Son, West End at £54.50 proved trade was consistent all day long. Continental lambs were also noticeably dearer in the longer keep lambs with anything fleshy working into late £50’s early £60’s all day long with TB Moorhouse of Dacre topping at £72 for a pen of Beltex lambs. Brian Lund topped the Gimmer lamb trade with a sweet pen of Beltex’s at £89.

Gordon Banks saves a prize pen for store lamb show The fortnightly sale of store lambs at Craven Cattle Mart saw 66 buyers throughout the day with long keep wintering lambs noticeably dearer than two weeks ago. A show-stopping pen of 25 Swaledales by CCM yardsman Gordon Banks of Barden took the red rosette and sold at £38 per head. Gordon, who has 350 sheep at home, keeps half his flock pure Swaledales and the other half are bred with Blue Faced Leicesters as male gimmers. He came second in the same show last year, and has also been a yardsman at CCM for 27 years.

Second Prize Show & Sale of North of England Mule Ewe Lambs on behalf of NEMSA Members. Forward: 7,938 head at an overall average of £86.78 per head (- £5.33 on 2014) CCM Auctions held their 2nd Fortnightly Sale of North of England Mule Gimmer Lambs on behalf of members of NEMSA on Tuesday at Skipton. An increased entry forward for sale saw a nice trade, with running lambs a particularly strong trade, whilst top pens were also dearer than the opening sale. The prize show on the morning of sale produced the following results.

Second Skipton NEMSA highlight produces inaugural champions First-time victors emerged in both show classes at the second annual ewe lamb fixture for members of the North of England Mule Sheep Association (NEMSA) at Skipton Auction Mart. (Tues, Sept 22) The title-winning pen of ten gimmer lambs was presented by the Walker family, from Fold Farm, Appletreewick, while the champion pen of 20s came from Wharfedale vendors, the Catons, of Weston Hall Farm, Weston, Otley.