PRIME sheep numbers at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday sale topped 4,000 head, the 3,238 Spring lambs among them taking a very useful lift, as they did at the same time last year, proving significantly dearer when producing an excellent overall average of 255.1p/kg, or £116.44 per head (SQQ 260p), 18p/kg up on the week. Fed sheep with meat were particularly well rewarded.

Best end lambs and any smart skinned three-quarters Texel met a very good enquiry, trade topped by Tony and Kay Kiernan from St Michaels, Preston, who sold 47 Beltex lambs at £175 per head, or 372p/kg.

Adrian Leach, of Hebden Bridge, had a good day with his Beltex pens, two lots sharing joint top per kilo price of 390p, with 43kg at £168 and 41kg at £160, plenty of others from the same home also among the leading prices.

Of a larger entry of 955 cast sheep, heavy cull ewes were a good trade, producing an overall section average of £76.33. Topping the trade at £179.50 were Texel crossed ewes. Cast rams averaged £91.17.

In the prime cattle ring, a light entry of nine under 30-month clean cattle led to solid demand, in particular for heavies, top gross of £2,029, or 306.5p/kg, going to Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching for a 662kg Limousin-x selling to Nick Dalby, of Hartwith, the Kitchings also responsible for the leading price heifer, another Limousin-x weighing 560kg, which sold for £1,683, or 300.5p/kg, to the mart-based Barkers Yorkshire Butchers. Both animals were also the highest price per kg in each section. The mart says it continues to seek quality clean cattle, particularly in the heavy weights to keep up with strong demand.

Cast cows were again a firm trade, noticeably for manufacturing meat at a time of year when processors usually start to concentrate on Christmas clean cattle trade, the 23 forward selling to an overall average of 138.81p/kg, or £889.45 per head.

The best of the heavy dairies were 142.5p/kg or £1,235, this for a black and white from Martyn Jennings in Cowling, with three-quarter meat coloured dairy cows also good to sell. Fleckviehs traded around160p/kg to highs of £1,241 and 167.5p/kg, and MRI to £1,038 and 156.5p/kg, all from Chris Watson, of Horton-in-Craven. A beef-breed Limousin from the Hollings twins, of Peckett Well in Calderdale, made £1,717, a single mature Simmental bull from Threshfield’s Angus Dean £1,535.

The same morning’s weekly sale of 33 rearing calves produced a similar trade on the week and a high of £460 for a bull, one of a consignment of two-and-a-half-month-old British Blue crosses from J&JR Clarkson, of Barkisdale.

Reports on yesterday’s annual shows and sales of pedigree Beef Shorthorn and Aberdeen-Angus cattle will appear in next week’s Herald, as will a preview of the much anticipated annual Christmas primestock show day on Sunday, November 27. Pedigree catalogues and a festive show schedule are available at www.ccmauctions.com