SKIPTON Auction Mart’s final pre-Christmas Monday market saw 3,827 prime sheep go under the hammer, the 2,818 lambs among them meeting a straight trade throughout to level well at 278.5p/kg, or £123.81 per head.

The best lambs were again a very good enquiry, nice skinned sorts of all weights a sharp trade, with commercial first-cross lowland lambs a shade less and commercial hill lambs also a touch easier on the week.

Top of the shop per head at £180 were EP&JM Hutchinson, of Faceby, for 46kg Beltex making 391p/kg, the same vendors selling further pens at £168, £167 and £165. Within their usual good run of lambs. Ellis Bros, of Addingham Moorside, sold Beltex pens at £175, £172 and £168, or up to 382p and 381p.

Paul Simpson, of Forest Becks, presented one of the stand-out Beltex consignments, achieving £173, £170, £168 twice and £160 twice. Among these were the top price per kilo of 409p for 41kg lambs, with other pens at 390p, 384p and 381p twice.

A run of well-fed Continental and Cheviot-cross lambs from Tony and Kay Kiernan, of St Michaels, topped at £170 per head, other pens from the same home making £165, £161 and £160.

Commercial lambs, while not just as sharp as seen in recent weeks, were still a decent trade, adding up to a very useful return, North of England Mules away at 250-270p and Cheviots 270-280p.

Of the 1,000-plus cast sheep, 978 cull ewes met a strong trade to average £105.82, topping at £197.50 for a single pure Texel from Anthony and Emma Thompson in Foulridge. Mules peaked at £145.50 from Silsden’s Philip Sedgwick, while top call among the Swaledales at £99.50 per head fell to John Smith, of Carleton. The 30 cast rams averaged £133.60, with a high of £267.50 for a Texel from Ian Marsden in Sheffield.

In the prime cattle arena, a smart 550kg Limousin-cross heifer from JW Stockdale & Sons, of Burnsall, sold well at 290.5p/kg, or £1,598, to Robertshaw’s Farm Shop in Thornton, while a 675kg MRI cull cow from N&R Sutcliffe, of Todmorden, made a very respectable 123.5p/kg, or £834.

At the weekly rearing calf sale, prices peaked at £400 for a British Blue-cross bull from Christmas show champions Louise and Andrew Ayrton, of Eastby, who also had the £275 top price Aberdeen-Angus bull calf.

Monday primestock sales continue as normal, with the December 27 fixture starting with cattle at 11.30am, followed by prime and cast sheep.

The mart’s latest Farming Country Podcast, again shining the spotlight on food, farming and life in Skipton, Craven and the Yorkshire Dales, is due to be aired. It can be accessed via the direct link on the www.ccmauctions.com home page and on all recognised social media channels.