A MONTHLY  prime lambs championship and reserve hat-trick was recorded by Ribble Valley father and son, Richard and Mark Ireland, Whalley, at CCM Skipton’s November show and sale.

They took top honours yet again with two top-notch pens of five home-bred Shamrock Beltex lambs, once more sired by their high performance Scottish-bred Clary Fantastic tup. The 42kg victors sold at £180 per head, £4.28 per kilo, to regular buyer Knavesmire Butchers, York, the 48kg reserves at £170, 425.6p/kg, to Halifax wholesalers J&E Medcalf. Both pens topped their section prices.

For the second consecutive month, the third prize 44kg pen, again Beltex-x, came from Calderdale’s George Sunderland, Cragg Vale, sold at £148, 390.2p/kg, to regular purchaser Andrew Atkinson, Felliscliffe, another 41kg pen from the same home doing better at £160.

A standalone show class for horned lambs was won by K Lister & Son, Kettlewell, with 42kg Dalesbred selling at £100, 238.1p/kg, double section top, to SM Halal Butchers, Bradford.

The latest fortnightly midweek sale of store lambs and breeding sheep attracted a total entry of 3,869 head, the former seeing all classes in solid demand, with trade stepping up a gear to produce an overall selling average of £99.32.

Prices peaked at £156 each for a pen of ten Beltex from Frankland Farms, Rathmell, who sold 58 lambs to average £148.93, while Tosside brothers, Trevor and Clive Robinson, also sold same way bred lambs to £154, with top end pens of Beltex and Beltex-x regularly trading in excess of £135 and long-keep smart lambs either side of £120.

All Beltex crosses averaged £137.99 Texel-x lambs traded to £139 for a pen of 48 from J&A Weare, Gisburn, plenty of others with size and frame making £120-£130. Suffolk lambs sold to £137 from JB Bancroft, West Marton, for a ring full of 75, other strong Suffolks away at at £116-£126.

Mule wether lambs sold to £111 for two pens from W Harrison &Son, Otley, hill lambs peaking at £116 for a Cheviot pen from JW Sayer & Son, West End, and horned lambs topping at £83 for Dalesbred from the Pateley Bridge Stoneys. Swaledale lambs sold to a top of £70 twice from F Macaskill, Glenlochay, Perthshire, and W Furniss & Sons, Dacre.

A tidy turnout of 257 breeding sheep – rams, ewes and gimmer lambs - sold to a good ringside of buyers, with gimmer lambs seen to be the dearest since the early sales and a good £15 to £20 per head above the previous fortnight.

Prices peaked at £152 for Mules from HW&G White, Horton-in-Ribblesdale, and £148 from JA Appleton, Kettlewell, Mules averaging £101.51 overall for a very seasonal entry.

Rams topped at 680gns for Texel from Jeff and Jennifer Aiken, Castle Douglas, Blue Texel trading to 300gns for JG Smithies, Halifax, Beltex 4-shear correct rams selling to the same price from M&K Farrar, Tadcaster. Most in demand were Blue Faced Leicester, Robin Schofield, Buckden, selling aged rams at 550gns twice and others to 450gns.