North West Auctions Weekly Report and Newsletter – 8th October
Weekly report & newsletter NWA Lancaster ‘Hill Fair Day’ NWA Lancaster held its annual “Hill Fair Day” sale for all classes of breeding sheep and store lambs. A sale that grows from strength to strength each year with a record amount of entries and a ring full of buyers keen to purchase every class of breeding sheep. The pre-sale show classes were kindly sponsored by Carrs Billington of Garstang. A strong show of seven pens mule gimmer lambs was judged by Mike Gillett of Penrith who awarded the first prize pen to Brian and Shirley Carter of Cragg End Farm. There was a strong class terminal sire rams lambs out in front of judge Luke Ayrton of Abbeystead who awarded first prize to the Texel from B & M Slater of Daub Farm. Bluefaced Leicester class was won by a ram lamb from T Ayrton & Sons of Yates Farm.
Breeding Sheep A special entry of Mule 3/4 crop ewes that had run with the tup, due to lamb early February sold to a top price of £127 and averaged £119 from PA & D Slater of Slacks Farm. Mule gimmer shearlings sold to a top price of £142 from EI Wilson of Sandgate Farm with other pens of mule shearlings selling between £125 and £135. Pure bred Texel ewes from James Sanderson of Highfield selling to £165. Mule gimmer lambs sold to a brisk trade and in line with other local markets later sales. The top price came for the first prize pen from Brian and Shirley Carter of Cragg End Farm selling for £112 to JS & KM Wilson of High House. The run of mule gimmer lambs was mainly made up of runners with the majority of pens selling between the mid eighties and early nineties.
Breeding Rams A nice entry of sixty rams forward. Trade was slightly selective, which has been seen throughout this autumn, best rams have been good to sell with plainer sorts slightly harder to place. Texel shearling rams sold to a top price twice of £500 from Ken Kelsall of Brown Brook with other Texels selling to £360 from young local shepherd Harry Carter of Cragg End. Suffolk shearling rams sold to a top price of £350 from TM Townley of Knowsley Farm. Ram lambs sold to a top price of £320 for a Texel ram lamb from Keith Parker of Wyrebeck. Bluefaced Leicester rams sold to a top price of £320 with a Midlock sired ram lamb from T Ayrton & Son of Yates Farm.
Store Lambs A solid entry of 550 store lambs sold to a ringside of local buyers all competing for all classes forward. Trade topped at £58.50 for a pen of 10 tight skin Suffolk lambs from EI Wilson, Flookburgh. Texel Beltex cross lambs sold to the same price from E Parker, Marsh Farm. Mule wethers sold to a top of £50.50 from D & D Huddleston, Botton Hall. The annual consignment from KM & KJ Curwen, Marshaw, saw cheviots sell to £53.50 some £6.50 up on the year. Swale wether lambs from the same home sold £37.50, on average £7.80 up on the year. Many more lambs could have been sold to vendors advantage with buyers left short of requirements. An overall sale average of £47/head was achieved, including hill lambs.
Breed Suffolk Texel Jacob Highlander Mule Swaledale
Top £58.50 £58.50 £54 £52 £50.50 £37.50
Average £53.64 £52.31 --£51.69 £50.02 £35.47
Show Results
Terminal Sire Ram Lambs 1st 2nd 3rd
Lot 41 B & M Slater Texel Lot 55 K & M Parker Texel Lot 51 Sam Atkinson Texel
£220 £210 £140
BFL Ram Lambs 1st 2nd 3rd
Lot 73 T Ayrton & Sons £320 Lot 70 W & A Cornall £220 Lot 71 W & A Cornall £200
Mule Gimmer Lambs 1st 2nd 3rd
B & SE Carter WI & A Atkinson M & L Preece
£112 £94 £94
Friday 17th October at Lancaster Fortnightly sale of Store Lambs to include End of Season sale of all classes of breeding sheep and rams. Entries for Catalogue close Monday 13th October e. info@nwauctions.co.uk t. 01524 63308 (Lancaster) t. 015395 66200 (J36 Kendal)
NWA Lancaster , Wyresdale Road, Golgotha, Lancaster, LA1 3JQ
e. property@nwauctions.co.uk t. 015395 66222 (J36 Kendal) t. 01524 63308 (Lancaster)
e. help@nwauctions.co.uk t. 015395 66222 (J36 Kendal) t. 01524 63308 (Lancaster)
NWA J36, J36 Rural Auction Centre, Crooklands, Milnthorpe, Cumbria, LA7 7FP