Nigh on 2,500 prime sheep passed through the sale ring at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday sale, with old season lamb numbers at 2,123 a head and achieving an overall selling average of £77.50 per head, or 187.1p/kg.

Trawden’s Jimmy Baines set the day’s per head high with a Texel pen at £110 each, while Matt Thornber, of Sawley, achieved a by-weight top of 271.4p/kg for a first-rate Beltex pen, with the breed averaging a solid £97.97 per head.

Commercial export weights sold either side of 200p/kg.

Mule lambs were again good to sell, with £32 to £35 par for the course for nice 44kg to 47kg types, while another large show of horned wethers saw lightweights achieve £20 to £25 over weight and prime weights £28 to £32.

More than 350 cast sheep, both cull ewes and rams, met with another good trade to achieve an overall per head average of £60.63.

Several pens of heavy ewes made over £100, with highs of £106.50 for a Charollais from Whenby and £104.50 for Texels from David Pennock of Bolton Abbey. Mule ewes averaged £67 per head with a high of £75.50. Horned ewes saw Scotch Black Faced selling to £62.50, Swaledale to £58.50, and Lonks to £62.50.

Glusburn’s David Towell sold two Texel cast ram entries at £145.50 and £137.50.