MORE than 3,500 sheep passed through the sales rings at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday sale.

A much larger entry of 734 breeding sheep, comprising 269 ewes with 465 lambs at foot, sold away to an improved trade, generally £2 to £5 per life dearer on the week.

Two pens shared the day’s top price of £265 per outfit. These were Texel-cross shearlings with twin lambs from Hebden’s David White and a pen of two and three-crop Texels with strong lambs from Rosie Dunn in York.

The 55 spring lambs produced plenty of choice for buyers.

Charles Marwood, of Whenby, York, achieved a by-weight high of 280p/kg, or £115 per head, for a Charollais pen purchased by Lane End Farm Shop in Tong, Bradford, who also paid £120 per head for a second pen from the same vendor.

Robert Towers, of Farleton, stepped up with the top gross price £122 per head Charollais pen sold to Kendall’s Farm Butchers in Harrogate and Pateley Bridge. The same vendor also hit £120 per head with another Charollais pen, these claimed by Shipley retail butcher John Kearns.

Steeton’s Mark Evans again led the Suffolk prices with a £105 per head pen, while the pick of the Texels at £100 each came from CR Wilson, of Wilpshire, Blackburn.

The overall spring lamb selling average was £101.76 per head, or 240.6p/kg.

While trade for the 2,417 prime hoggs was down by around 10p/kg on the week, they were nevertheless dearer than late last week, recording an overall average of 184.7p/kg or £80.64 per head.

Top-end entries made 230p to 268p/kg, with good meat types either side of 200p/kg and heavier hoggs carrying meat selling at 175p to 190p/kg.

Another sizeable Beltex-cross run from Messrs Atkinson in Felliscliffe, Harrogate, led the way with £117 per head and 268.3p/kg selling prices, while Frankland Farms in Rathmell also caught the eye with a £111 per head Texel pen.

In the cast sheep classes, the 293 cull ewes again met a nice trade. Ewes averaged a shade under £71 per head, peaking at £120.50 each for a Texel pen from Hellifield’s John Mellin, closely followed at £119.50 per head by a further Texel offering from another Hellifield vendor, teenager William Watson.

Ten cast rams averaged £90.90 per head, with a high of £121.50 for a Texel from Bell Busk’s Brian Moorhouse.