Verity hill farming families from Middlesmoor clinched both red rosettes at Skipton Auction Mart’s annual shows for pens of horned wether lamb.

Keith Verity, of Suttill Farm, was responsible for the first prize Dalesbred pen, sold for a class high of £47.50 per head, while William, Roland and David Verity, of Middle Stean Farm, presented the first prize pen of Swaledale wether lambs, which also headed their class prices at £43.50 each. They also chipped in with the second prize Dalesbred pen at £41 per head.

The Veritys, who farm together and in their own rights, had gathered in their Skipton consignments from the Nidderdale fells over the previous weekend.

The second prize Swaledale pen from W Banks & Son, of Barden, made £35 each.

With several seasonal customers looking to purchase, trade for horned wethers was described as good and the 581 Swaledale and Dalesbred on offer sold to an overall average of £38.52 per head.

As winter keep becomes available, the 1,546 Mule and Masham wethers forward were also keenly contested , with Masham entries averaging £54.22 per head and Mules £52.87. The latter peaked at £56.80 each for a 95-strong pen from W Harrison & Son, of Weston, Otley.

A nice selection of lowland lambs saw strong types sell in the £60s, medium lambs in the late £50s and long keep lambs between £46 and £54, depending upon size. Strong Suffolk and Continental gimmer lambs with good skins and clean heads also proved popular.

Store lambs averaged £54.91 each and gimmer lambs £69.89, with an overall selling average for the 7,302 head forward on the day of £56.24.

On what again proved one of the busiest sheep weeks of the year at Skipton, the previous day’s fortnightly Tuesday sale of 2,091 breeding sheep produced similar trade for young sheep. Shearlings of all breeds were good to sell, with Mules making to £170 and averaging £134, and Texels selling to £150 at an average of £134.

The second part the sale comprised 1,163 broken mouth correct below ewes.

“The sheep in this section were shown in far better bloom than last year and this definitely had a positive effect on trade, with prices much stronger on the year,” said CCM’s livestock sales manager Ted Ogden.

Both Mule and Swaledale broken mouthed prices peaked at £85 per head.