THERE was another increase in sheep numbers at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday sale, with the 2,747 prime and lightweight hoggs among the 3,000-plus turnout doing much better than anticipated when producing an overall selling average of 187.6p/kg, or £78.31 per head, for all breeds, weights and grades.

The mart’s livestock sales manager Ted Ogden said: “Increasing uncertainty and turmoil in the Eurozone had resulted in the £-Euro exchange rate rising four cents from the middle of last week alone and trading opened at 1.346Euro to £1 on Monday morning, which did not help exports from the UK, causing our lamb to look dearer to foreign customers.

“As a result, export-led buyers were understandably quieter and this class of lamb saw a fall on the week, with the 36kg to 45kg bracket down 7.4p/kg.”

There were again some top-notch lambs on offer, with plenty of three-figure per head performers in the ever-popular Beltex classes.

Ellis Bros, of Addingham Moorside, led the way with a 40kg pen knocked down at £116 each, or 290p/kg, the same vendors also achieving 271.1p/kg with another same way bred offering.

Bolton-by-Bowland’s Paul Simpson stepped up with his usual good run of Beltex lambs, topping at 273.1p/kg, while Sarah Eddleston, of Great Harwood, was also to the fore with a 271.9p/kg pen.

While heavy lambs didn’t match the previous week’s flying trade, showing a 10p fall on the week overall, 50kg-plus lowland lambs generally sold away well at £92 to £94, with Ralph and Val Crabtree, of Clifton, Otley, topping the section with a nice pen of 46kg Beltex at £110 apiece.

Mule lambs were a couple of pounds cheaper, the average down 4p on the week at 177p/kg, with general trade for 43kg to 46kg entries £33 to £35 over the weight.

Over 700 Mule and horned lambs figured among the entry and lightweight horned wethers proved particularly good to move on, with ethnic trade helping to push most 34kg to 35kg weights to £60 or just over.

Cast sheep, 324 in total, were again good to sell, with overall averages of £84 for cull ewes and £94 for rams recorded. Texels again had the pick of the trade, with ewe prices peaking at £140.50 per head for a pen from Steve and Sherry Richardson, of Great Houghton, Barnsley, and £123.50 for a ram from Cowling’s Sam Booker.