Farming
Round-up
By Alec Ross
33 bullocks at St Boswells yesterday averaged 301p/kg and sold to 324p/kg, with heifers averaging 303p/kg and selling to 336p/kg.
Cast cows averaged 219p/kg and sold to 247p/kg or £2,380/head. Lambs rose slightly on the week to average £113/head and sold to £167 for Texels, while cast sheep averaged £75/head and sold to £203/head for Texel tups. Heavy ewes averaged £115/head with light ewes peaking at £99/head for North Country Cheviots.
Prime heifers met with strong demand at Carlisle yesterday, rising 13p/kg on the week to an average of 285p/kg and a peak of 330p/kg, with beef bred bullocks largely unchanged at an average of 270p/kg.
Cast cows continue to trade well, with both beef and dairy types up slightly on the week to averages of 187p/kg and 141p/kg respectively. In line with elsewhere, prime lambs rose slightly to record an SQQ average of 269p/kg and sold to a peak of 400p/kg or £185/head. Lowland ewes sold to £186 for a Texel with hill ewes selling to £118 for a Swaledale.
Lambs at Ayr yesterday sold to £124/head for a pen of Beltexes from Little Creoch or to 110p/kg for Muir farm, with the sale averaging 244p/kg or £109/head.
Quality was at a premium in the rough ring due to a lack of continental types, but all other classes met with demand and sold to £200 for Texel tups from Cowgrove, with Martnaham Mains leading the female section with £142 for a Texel cross ewe.
Meanwhile, mules topped at £103 for Lawhill and hill ewes sold to £92 for Cheviots from Aitkenhead. Blackies sold to £86 for Cronberry.
196 rams of all breeds were sold at the annual Kelso Tup Sales on Friday, with the championship going to A&A Taylor, Heathery Hall, who sold their Beltex crosses to an average of £1,297/head and a peak of £3,200.
Cross bred sheep were in demand throughout the day, with three quarter bred Beltexes from Unthank – who also topped the pure Texel section at £2,100 - selling for £1,300/head.
Demand for tups was also high at Newton Stewart’s annual sale on Saturday, with tup lambs averaging £441/head and selling to £850 for a Texel from North Lodge, while shearlings averaged £725 and sold to £1,350 for the same breed from Dinnans.
Twelve Texel gimmers averaged £346/head and sold to £520 for Crailloch, while a shearling from Alexander Clark, West Glengyre, topped the Suffolks and sold a Beltex shearling for £950. Lambs from Redbrae sold to £600/head, while cross bred tups met with demand, selling to £1,300 for Charolais cross Texel shearlings from Fineview. Boghouse tooped the Bluefaced Leicester section at £600 for a shearling.
Breeding and feeding sheep at Dumfries on Saturday met strong demand with 1,405 Scotch Mule ewe lambs averaging £120/head, while Blackies sold to £105 for Kirkland and £80 for Auchenbrack.
Gimmers met a steady trade with crosses selling to £178 for Clonrae and North Country Cheviots selling to £145 on two occasions for Barr. It was store lambs that created the most interest, however, with Texels and crosses from Tara selling to £96 & £93 respectively.
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