BELTEX sheep-breeding brothers Clive and Trevor Robinson, of Middle Brayshaw Farm, Tosside, clinched another memorable championship and reserve championship double with first-rate pens of five near-pure lambs at Skipton Auction Mart’s November prime lamb show and sale.

The Robinsons were landing leading honours for the third month in succession and it was also the second time over the same period they had recorded reserve championship recognition.

The title-winning 45kg pen sold for £95 per head to Kitsons Butchers in Northallerton, now a regular buyer of both prime lambs and cattle at Skipton, while the 37kg reserve champions made £83 each when falling to Felliscliffe’s Andrew Atkinson, buying on behalf of Hartshead Meats in Mossley, Manchester.

The Robinsons are now increasingly concentrating their efforts on pure Beltex breeding, running around 100 Beltex-cross-Texel ewes and putting them to eight rams, some home-bred, others acquired at Skipton, where they have sold some 400 lambs this year, with just a few still at home.

“We want nothing but pedigree Beltex now and we must be getting it right, because to win a hat-trick of championships, plus a brace of reserve championships over a three-month period at our local auction takes some doing,” said Clive Robinson.

Father and son Richard and Mark Ireland, of Whalley, led the sale with a pen of Texel lambs purchased for £99 per head by MN Alam for Lancashire Direct Halal Meat in Blackburn. The same buyer also acquired the third prize horned lamb show pen, 39kg Swaledales from Dorothy Heseltine, of Linton, at £50 each.

Mr Atkinson also paid £89 per head for the third prize 43kg Continental pen from Ellis Bros, of Addingham Moorside, again for Hartshead Meats, making a further prize-winning acquisition with the second prize 51kg Suffolk pen from Gerald and Jonathan Beresford, of Hellifield, at £69 each. These were acquired on behalf of Fairfield Meats in Wrexham.

The Beresfords were also responsible for the third prize 48kg Suffolks, which made £68.50 each when falling to the show judge, James Blenkhorn, buyer for Riley Bros Butchers in Burnley. However, it was the red rosette-winning 47kg pen from John Thwaite, of Horton-in-Craven, that led the class prices at £71 per head when joining Swaledale Foods in Skipton.

Cowling’s Andrew Ogden sent out the first prize pen of horned lambs, 44kg Lonks sold at £59 each to Hellifield’s Paul Watson, bettered at £63 per head for the second prize 43kg Dalesbred pen from Kettlewell’s Ken Lister. This pen of ten will be shared jointly by Swaledale Foods and The Millstones and Mill 67 Restaurant in Skipton Road, Felliscliffe.

A further show class for Mule or Masham lambs was won by Pateley Bridge’s Bernard Simpson, his 53kg Mules falling for £66.50 each, again to Fairfield Meats, who also paid £64 per head for the second prize 54kg Dales Mules pen from WM Hall in Grassington. The third prize 46kg Mule pen from Alan Throup, of Silsden, sold for £64 each to Dunbia Foods in Preston. Show classes were again sponsored by Wynnstay.

An increased turnout of 4,065 prime sheep - both lambs and ewes - met with a stronger trade on the week, with the 3,631 prime lambs among them selling to an overall average of £66.39 per head, or 151.41p/kg.

Commercial lambs were noticeably more expensive on the week, with export types 5p/kg dearer, while Mule and hill-bred lambs, together with heavy lambs, were £5 per head dearer. With ewe numbers generally tighter countrywide, trade is beginning to warm up again.

Also on parade were 434 cast ewes and rams. Cull ewes averaged £45.32 per head, peaking at £97.50 each for a Texel pen from James and Deborah Ogden in Austwick, while cast rams sold to an overall average of £62.07, with a high of £94.50 for a Texel from Hellifield teenager William Watson.