RED Rose husband and wife sheep farmers, David and Laura Coar, of Yew Tree Farm, Darwen, secured Skipton Auction Mart’s May prime lambs championship with a brace of home-bred Spring-born Beltex-cross on Monday.

It was the second title win at Skipton for the couple – their first came in July last year – and their 43kg duo, by Will Case tups, sold for £120 per head, or 279p/kg, to Eldwick’s Mick Etherington, buying on behalf of Kitson & Sons Butchers for its four north-east outlets.

Kitsons is a regular buyer of championship and other prize-winning primestock – lamb, beef cattle and pigs - at the North Yorkshire mart and title winners were among other Spring lamb purchases the same day, which also included a single lamb at £126 from Fox Farms in Clitheroe.

Owner Anthony Kitson said all acquisitions would be on sale from this weekend at its latest Five Houses Farm Shop and Kitchen in Crathorne, along with established retail butchers shops in Northallerton, Stockton-on-Tees and Hutton Rudby. The Coars were also responsible for the second prize same way bred 42kg pairs, these falling for £118 each to Andrew Atkinson Livestock in Felliscliffe for West Scottish Lamb.

Fox Farms also sent out the third prize 40kg Continental pen, claimed at £114 per head, or 285p per kilo top price by Yorkshire Halal Meats.

Standing reserve champion with the first prize pair of home-bred 48kg Suffolk-cross ram lambs was another Lancastrian, John Nutter, of Manor Farm, Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley, which again fell to Mr Atkinson at £126 each for Hartshead Meat Co in Mossley. He also bought the third prize 44kg pen from John Key, of Stocksbridge, at £105, again for West Scottish Lamb.

The second prize 45kg pen from Steeton’s Mark Evans fell at £125 to John Kearns Butchers in Shipley, with the same vendor also responsible for the day’s top price £128 Suffolk pen, these, too, claimed by Mr Atkinson for Hartshead Meats.

Mr Nutter, who runs pedigree Suffolk, Blue Faced Leicester and Swaledale flocks, presented a good run of heavy lambs, selling further pens at £124 and £122. The 150 Spring lambs of offer sold to an overall average £109.22 per head, or 251.45p/kg

Just two shy of 1,500 prime sheep were penned for sale, with the 1,067 prime and 66 mature hoggs among them averaging £90.52 per head, or 194.2p/kg, overall. They were very much end of season types, though better fed sorts still commanded good prices, the best at 266p/kg on two occasions coming from Nick Capstick, of Bolton-by-Bowland, both pens purchased by Yorkshire Halal Meats.

The top price £120 per head hoggs, Beltex-crosses from Hywell Williams, of Llandadog, fell to Kendall Farm Butchers for its shops in Harrogate and Pateley Bridge.

Also on offer were 215 cast sheep, with several pens of strong cull ewes selling from £100 to £124.50, these for Texels from E Gudgeon, of Embsay, Other decent lowland ewes sold in the £90s, decent horned ewes making in the £50s and £60s. They averaged £66.57 per head overall, with cast rams averaging £71.20.