CLOSE on 3,000 prime sheep went under the hammer at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday sale, with the 2,264 lambs among them proving harder to sell as was widely expected during Great Yorkshire Show week, levelling at £80.39 per head or 188.56p/kg across the board.However, the best lambs still met a reasonable trade at 220-250p/kg generally, with a few pens doing better. L Simpson and Son, of Pateley Bridge, topped the by-weight prices at 258p/kg, or £111 per head, with a 43kg Beltex pen claimed by Vivers Scotlamb in Annan, with gross prices peaking at £119 per head for a 57kg Texel pen from Bell Busk’s Brian and Judith Moorhouse.

The 660 cast sheep among the mix saw cull ewes sell to an overall average of £46.24 per head, topping at £99.50 per head, with cast rams averaging £59.72. Leading buyer with four purchases at the weekly prime cattle sale was Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop, of Lancaster, among them the leading price per kilo entry, a 560kg Limousin-cross heifer from regular vendors, the Critchley family, of Hutton, at 256.5p/kg, or £1,436. Top gross was a 625kg Limousin-cross steer from Threshfield’s Charles and Richard Kitching, which made £1,478, or 236.5p/kg, when falling to Stanforths Butchers in Skipton.

A high percentage of lean cows was once again reflected in the overall selling average of £633.48 per head, or102.75p/kg.