PRIME hogg trade at CCM Skipton Auction Mart on Monday saw no sign of letting up, with 2,732 head achieving an overall average of 348p/pg (SQQ 353p), £151.30 per head, most weight ranges showing a 25p/kg to 28p/kg gain on the week, a total of 115 pens making between £170 and £225, to a top of 512p/kg.

Commercial handy-weight Continental lambs were in very strong demand, mostly 340-380p/kg, some touching 390p/kg, while smart goods were, like previous weeks, 400-500p/kg, overweights regularly trading at £170-£210 per head and nice mediums £160-£180. Mule wether lambs also stepped up a gear at 300-330p/kg, selling to highs of £160, with horned lambs also doing well at 300-335p/kg.

Across the weight ranges, 52kg-plus overweights averaged £182, 323p/kg, Charollais breeder Deborah Whitcher, Whenby, York, claiming £215 section top, while the Hutchinson family, Faceby, arrived with their regular consignment of overweights, selling five pens at £200-plus to a high of £214 for 68kg entries. I Deighton, Thorner, Leeds, also hit £202 with a 56kg pen.

The overall average for 46-52kg heavies was £165, 343p/kg, M&G Dobson, Burnsall, topping both per head and per kilo with 47kgs lambs at £198, 421p/kg, both the Kitching family, Threshfield, and the Hutchinsons again presenting 49kg and 50kg pens at £192. Other good 46-49kg Continental lambs made £170-£190, a more commercial, but nice fleshed 46-48kg sort £155-£170.

It was the 36-45kg handyweight lambs that again proved the trade of the day, averaging £147, 355p/kg, regardless of breed, comprising Texels at 363p/kg, Suffolks at 353p/kg, Charollais 359p/kg, Beltex 408p/kg, Scotch Black Faced 334p/kg, Blue Texel 368p/kg, Lonk 318p/kg, Easy Care 318p/kg, and Swaledales/Dalesbred 293p/kg.

The undoubted section highlight fell to W&J Parkinson, Garstang, who set the pace with 45kg lambs selling for £225 each, or £5 per kilo, the same home also responsible for pens at £200 and £190 twice. Kevin Marshall, Menwith Hill, topped the day’s kilo prices at a mighty 512p/kg with 39kg at £200 each. JE Burrow, Kirkby Malham, sold lambs to £195 and others to 456p/kg.

Smart goods remained north of 400p/kg, with commercial type 38-43kg lambs now able to make 370-390p/kg and several 40kg pens at £152-plus, 42kg into the £160s at times for a very commercial bred lamb.

Lightweight lambs averaged £110, 333p/kg, Joe Bosworth, Rossendale, and WH&WJ Hartley, Barnoldswick, selling 35kg and 34kg pens at £142 and £140 respectively. Good fleshed lightweights of any breed were in strong demand ringside.

Best Mule and Masham lambs were £150 up to£160, these from I&R Hall, Kilnsey, the Grindleton Towlers hitting £156, closely followed at £155 by David Charnley, Littondale. Mule wether lambs averaged 315p/kg.

The turnout of 3,215 prime sheep also comprised 516 cast entries, with stronger trade for all classes of cull ewes, which, with a couple of fresh faces ringside, fell short of buyers’ requirements and large numbers are required for future sales.

Top call of £269.50 fell to Charollais ewes from the Marwoods, Whenby, while Texel sold to £267.50 from Simon Bennett, Silsden, a total of 14 pens of continental ewes making £200-plus. Mule ewes peaked at £139.50 from D Calvert & Son, West Marton, horned ewes at £101.50 for Swaledales from the Threshfield Kitchings. Cull ewes averaged £121.20 and cast rams £86.63.

A larger entry of 218 breeding sheep comprised 81 outfits, those with twins averaging £271.20 for Texel, £271.25 for Suffolk and £185 for Mules. Heading the trade for the second week running were Anthony and Heather Hewetson, Bank Newton, with a strong Texel-x pen making £320, followed by two more pens at £310, a further two at £295. Suffolk classes sold to £290 for a quality pen from North Lincolnshire’sThomas Ogg, Alkborough, Single trade did not disappoint either, with an average of £196.67 for Texels and £190.83 for Suffolks, TW Ogg returning to share top price honours of £220 with Jack Monk, Blackburn, for Texel and Suffolk pens. Out of nine pens of singles, six made £200 or more, with two more at £192.

In the cattle ring, black and white culls cows sold to £1,336.72 from AL Dean & Sons, Threshfield, a younger black and white from the same vendors making 207.5p/kg, a full meat mature Hereford bull from the same home away at 165.5p/kg, £1,741. Lean entries made 150p/kg, those carrying more meat 170p/kg, with Aberdeen-Angus cows from Alistair Lawn, Skipton, trading to 205.5p/ for a 681kg entry and a per head high of £1,437, other Angus cows either side of 200p/kg. The overall cull cow average was 177.83p/kg, £1,249.

A light entry of 23 rearing calves produced trade dearer on the week, British Blue-x bulls again proving strong, with a top call of £470 for a brace from P&RM Sutcliffe, Queensbury, and N&SA Fort, Silsden, who also made £360 with a Fleckvieh bull calf.

All strong Blue bulls sold at £400-plus, with two-week-old models around £200. Blue-x heifers traded to £380 from RE Ayrton & Son, Eastby, the best heifers making £330-£350, the younger end either side of £300. Angus bull calves made £305-£440 top from the Hayton & Stocks partnership, Bolton Abbey, who also headed the Angus heifer prices at £315, these selling at £190 upwards, with Hereford heifer calves trading to £210.