Market Prices

Finished Sheep – 1243 Sold A small entry of lambs this week as is often the case in September and October and with reports of poor demand nationally, we saw a similar trade to last week for the best meated offerings. The heavier the better being the theme for the day. Several good runs of strong lambs this week with the pick of the bunch being some very heavy continental cross lambs from W G Watkins & Sons which peaked at £102.50 and averaged £97. Best continental lambs sold to 213p per kg from D C Foy for Beltex cross lambs with another run of super Beltex crosses from G H Dean & Co selling in excess of 200p. The average returned at over 176p against a national figure of 173p across the country. Cull Ewes and Rams – 768 Sold Another good sized entry of ewes forward with a huge percentage on offer being presented quite lean and showing signs of the hard summer they have had. This is also shown by the fact that over 50% were not sent to slaughter but were purchased by farmers to improve over the winter. The ewe trade nationally has been showing a downturn in recent weeks with averages dropping but this is due to the condition of the ewes on offer. Best meated sorts were selling around the £80 mark. Top prices included continental cross ewes to £80 from Ms H V Link, Suffolk crosses to £80 from M L Williams and Romneys to £65 from R S Body & Sons. Store Lambs – 5,294 Sold The special show of Suffolk x Mule ewe lambs met a selective trade with plenty of customers for the best while second and third quality sorts proved more difficult to sell. The overall average of £70.95 was slightly back on the year and while the top prize winning pens attracted prices in excess of £90 the middle of runs eased back to around £70 and the bottoms of runs generally sold at prices reflecting store value. Top run of the day again were 400 quality, well bred and grown lambs consigned by D Howard Farms Ltd which topped at £94 for 1 st prize winning pen purchased by G H Dean & Co and averaged £90.70 for the whole run. Other top prices included 2nd prize winners at £92 from H J Hecks & Son purchased by L Andreozzi and 3 rd prize winners at £93.50 from W J Hurley and purchased by Stone Farms Ltd. Other ewe lambs included a pen of smart Suffolk x Lleyns selling well at £90 from Mrs C M West and Texel crosses £68 from R Hambrook. The store lambs on offer sold at recent levels to average £58.24 with top prices including Beltex crosses at £69 from S Weeks and Sons, Texel crosses at £68 from S W Curran and Suffolk x Romney’s to £65.20 from Lovejoy Farms Partnership. The first large entry of ewe tegs met a good enquiry with more confidence shown amongst purchasers. This has been brought about by the good flush of grass and awareness that overall numbers are likely to have been well reduced by the higher price of slaughter hoggets this spring. A small show of North Country Mules saw tidy types from M Gachould, Surrey Hills selling to £130 and then £124 and £118 with others from J Taylor, Beckley to £122 (twice).