Well summer has definitely arrived. It's been glorious. All the cattle are out and it's lovely to watch the calves cavorting while their mothers take it easy in the shade. I've no doubt the sheep that were sheared recently are relieved to be free of their warm fleece.

We are pup and piglet free and it's unbelievably calm around the place. We even found time to shoot some clays the other day with our neighbour. We have a few of our show potential heifers at Newton Rigg College where the students are practising stockman skills on them. A Simmental and a Shorthorn heifer are being shown at Cumberland Show at the weekend and have been washed and trimmed in readiness for their first outing.

A combination of a steadily improving prime cattle trade and an abundance of grass seems to be fueling the store trade again with younger and grazing cattle trade on fire. Perhaps it’s the demand for burgers for the BBQ but the cull cow trade also seems to be on the up!

More spring lambs about now, but trade is holding up, with most markets averaging around the 200p/kg mark. However, auctioneers are warning about the dangers of letting lambs get too fat now the grass is really growing, so don't leave them too long before heading to market.

Some sales coming up over this next week: