A WHOPPING 6,751 store lambs were entered for Skipton Auction Mart’s latest fortnightly Wednesday sale, with a multitude of buyers, many of whom were attending for the first time this season, attracted by the bumper turnout and the multiple choices on offer.

The fixture produced an overall selling average of £52.67 per head and while this was just short of £4 per head down on last year’s corresponding fixture it was deemed a good result given the current state of the sheep market nationally.

Lowland lambs accounted for 4,611 of the total entry, among them 745 Beltex-sired lambs, for which there was an inaugural prize show and sale, when the winner’s red rosette was awarded to Ian Moorhouse, of TB Moorhouse & Son, based at Foulshaw Farm, Dacre.

The Moorhouse family only started breeding three-quarters Beltex this year.

They sold for a joint sale-topping price of £79 per head, with exactly the same price achieved for both the second and third prize show pens from, respectively, Robert Garth of Bentham, and Steven Wells, of Monyash, near Bakewell in Derbyshire.

The Moorhouses sold a second Beltex pen at £79, also heading the Texel prices with a £60.50 per head pen.

While strong lambs were a very similar trade to the previous fortnight, both medium and long-keep lambs were dearer.

At 2,068 head, Mule wether lambs were again forward in large numbers and were keenly contested throughout from a large company of travelled buyers, levelling at a steadfast £50.83 per head.

The annual prize show of pens of 50 Mule wether lambs saw top honours go to Steven Wells, who trades with his wife Steph and was accompanied by his 11-year-old son Owen.

Mr Wells has been attending the Skipton highlight for the past four or five years and was this year represented by a 190-strong consignment of Mule and Beltex-cross lambs. He currently has 800 breeding ewes and 200 ewe lambs, along with 80 pure Limousin and Limousin-cross suckler cows.

His Mule wether victors sold for the joint top price of £55 per head, which was equalled by the third prize pen from V Verity & Son, of West End. The second prize pen from local breeders and reigning CCM Farmers of the Year, Stephen, Tracey and Samantha Fawcett, of Drebley, made £53 each.

Beltex lambs averaged £58.78 per head overall, with Texel averaging £53.27. Charollais prices peaked at £59 per head for a pen from PJ&RH Wallbank, of Silsden, averaging £53.93. The pick of the Suffolks from SL&SD Lund, of Litton, made £57.50 each, averaging £51.36.

The first of the horned lambs also made an appearance, topping at £46 for a Swaledale pen from DB&E Greenwood, of Threshfield, and averaging £31.94, maybe offering better value for money for long-keep customers.

In the gimmer lamb classes, the top price £73.50 per head Texels were presented by JW Stockdale, of Burnsall, with James Foster, of Bolton Abbey, producing the highest price pen of Suffolks at £58 each.

An entry of up to 10,000 head of sheep is anticipated at Skipton’s next fortnightly store lamb sale on Wednesday, including many consignments of crossed Suffolk and Continental gimmer lambs, along with the annual prize show for 40 or more Masham wether lambs.