Well, what a wet, windy, wintery week! The river near us has been looking seriously swollen. The field gateways have turned to mud and it feels constantly gloomy. I’ll take crisp frosty days anytime.

It was the Lake District stockjudging evening at Penrith Mart last Thursday. It’s a Mart's the Heart-supported event, and it really is a well-attended, grand community gathering. As usual, I was miles off the result, but it was lovely to catch up with like-minded folk. The lab pup is suddenly full of mischief, which is wearing thin with the two Patterdales. I’ve introduced her to the outdoor collies in an effort to tire her out.

Some serious Suffolk prices were seen at the weekend, with a gimmer from Jimmy Douglas topping the Three Nations sale at 36,000gns and a ewe lamb making 10,000gns for Mark Priestley.

Prices at the English Winter Fair were good too, with the overall commercial champion making £4,200. The champion sheep single and pairs were both won by Robert Garth, with the champion pairs making £30.

Both prime cattle and lambs have seen a lift in the prime trade at the beginning of the week as buyers start to stock up for Christmas, which is good news all round.

Stay dry. 

Steph Ryder 

Head of Commercial Sales & Development

Steph Ryder

Head of Commercial Sales

On a crazy week where we saw Donald Trump elected as the American president, it feels like we've jumped straight into winter. The trees are getting bare and we've even seen snow on a couple of days.

We've had a couple of new additions this past week. One was a fair sized Charolais bull calf and the other was in the shape of a black labrador pup. Both are doing well, although the pup appears a tad more demanding and time consuming than the calf!

Good trade was seen at some of this week's Mart's the Heart sales. Suffolk trade at Wright Marshall was strong, topping at 2,400gns for the champion three-crop ewe from the Knockem flock. Salers at Castle Douglas saw a bull break breed records selling for 11,000gns and, at Middleton in Teesdale, the champion - a six-month-old Limousin-sired heifer - sold for £3,100.

There's been a bit of a lift in the prime trade at the beginning of the week, so let's hope this colder weather encourages that to continue as we get nearer to Christmas. The next thing will be Christmas fatstock shows and sales!

Have a good week!

Steph Ryder

It was the 10th anniversary of Agri-Expo last week, and what a fantastic turnout of stock and folk from all over the country. There was an outstanding show of pedigree calves, commercials and sheep throughout all classes.

One minute the weather is unseasonably warm and the next its frosty, which isn't the best recipe for indoor stock, as we are finding. One of our calves had a spot of pneumonia. We called out the vet to be on the safe side and, after some treatment, he is thankfully recovering nicely.

Swaledale ram trade was off the clock last Thursday at Hawes, with top prices of £92,000 and £86,000. That was the last of the big ram sales so we might get back to some normality now.

Trade is steady in the primestock rings with lambs just creeping up a little bit, so let's hope things improve as winter approaches. There seems to be a good trade for the better quality dairy stock so, hopefully, there is some confidence returning as milk prices start to improve slightly.