Archive for 2018

Good grief what a wet and miserable week it’s been. It’s been a constant downpour. The fields are waterlogged and the stock look bedraggled and fed up. The ducks are the only ones happy along with a new mum who turned up with her four new chicks, no idea where she’d been nesting.

It was a great day for Stuart Currie at the Marts The Heart sale of Beef Shorthorns at Skipton where he had a number of the leading prices for heifers including setting a new breed centre record of 11,000gns for Beautry Shuna Liesel.

In-lamb ewe sales are now underway and at the Dark Diamonds Suffolk sale at Carlise top price of 7000gns was for a shearling ewe from Andrew Wilson's Castleisle flock, Co Donegal.

Charolais bulls topped at 7,000gns at Welshpool for Maerdy Norseman from Esmor Evans and Limousins sold to 6,200gns at Brecon for Braydonside Norman from Owen Comer.

Breeding cattle seem to be a good trade selling to £3600 at Kirkby Stephen for a British Blue sired heifer with calf.

Prime cattle and sheep prices are a few pence more for the best quality with anything else still more difficult to sell but the strong store lamb trade continues with Darlington seeing a top price of £84.50 on Monday.

Sales coming up this week

Thursday, 15 November – Penrith will be holding their Marts the Heart sponsored Lake District stock judging evening at Penrith Mart
Friday, 16 November – Hexham will be holding their weekly sale of store cattle which will also include the annual second Bellingham sale of spring-born suckled calves and a suckler cow herd dispersal from Mr R. P. Ridley at Hexham Mart
Saturday, 17 November – North West Auctions will be holding an on-farm dispersal sale of machinery, livestock equipment and implements on behalf of J.A. and V.M. Lamb at Conder Green, LA2 0AN
Saturday, 17 November - Selby will be holding a sale of 180 cattle of all classes at Selby Auction Mart
Tuesday, 20 November – Greenslade Taylor Hunt will be holding their November collective sale of 183 dairy cattle at Sedgemoor Auction Centre
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I've included two of our latest jobs on www.jobsinagriculture.com I think you might be interested in. Why not register your CV today?

Sector Board Members

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is looking for new members to join its boards.

The roles are an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of AHDB against a backdrop of Brexit, global price volatility, technological innovation and changing habits of British shoppers.

Herdsperson/Farm Worker

Dartmoor farming enterprise are looking to recruit a herdsperson/ farmworker on full or part time/ flexible basis.
Work includes looking after a herd of pedigree Belted Galloway cattle and a pedigree sheep flock. The successful applicant needs to be self- motivated and be able to work independently and demonstrate good husbandry skills.

Might see you at Penrith on Thursday,

Steph

Let's just say we've had better weeks! The sheep have been scanned and none of the six Suffolk embryos took, was it the heat? Then my Shorthorn show heifer calved. It was a massive calf so we decided to have a caesarean which put pay to future showing. Then after all that the blumin' calf didn't make it. Fed up was putting it mildly! On a positive we've had another three cows calve with no bother. As the saying goes..where there's livestock there's deadstock.

Breeding sheep sales are coming to an end, winter fairs are well underway and the Christmas fatstock shows are just around the corner which may help the prime trade as butchers and processors look to build up stocks for the festive season.

Prime lamb averages are up by a few pence and the better quality lambs are still selling well. Not much improvement in the cattle trade but hopefully this will change if demand increases. Store lambs remain a flying trade with some markets reporting the best trade seen all year as buyers feel in a slightly better place to fill their stock requirement.

Salers sold to 9,000gns twice at the Marts The Heart sale at Castle Douglas for bulls, Harestone Lamborgini from the Barclays, Insch, and Drumaglee Legend from Patrick Boyd, Tiree

Suckled calves sold to £3000 at Middleton in Teesdale on Tuesday and £2,700 at Kirkby Stephen on Monday where there were plenty of buyers. Calves with show potential were no doubt driving the top prices, and while the better grown bigger calves sold well, smaller calves were a more difficult trade.

Sales coming up this week

Thursday, November 8 – Thame Farmers will be holding a dispersal of contents of agricultural engineers store on behalf of A G Ford & others atNearton End Farm, MK17 0SL
Friday, November 9 – Clitheroe Auction will be holding their annual second 'Old Fair' sale of 1500 sheep at Clitheroe Auction Mart
Saturday, November 10 – McCartneys will be holding the autumn show and sale of 60 pedigree Limousin cattle at Brecon Market
Monday, November 12 – Clee Tompkinson Francis will be holding a sale of 300 weaned calves at Sennybridge Market
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Here's some of the latest jobs on www.jobsinagriculture.com that I thought you might be interested in.

Livestock Technical Manager

We are seeking a highly motivated Livestock Technical Manager to join our team with a background particularly in dairy, cattle and sheep production but pig and poultry experience is advantageous.

Dairy Sales
Manager

Responsible for development of sales of the Farm Animal Division’s nutritional and health products which will be sold directly to farmers through a network of Area Sales Managers.

Until next week,

Steph

A weekend cracking on dosing and fluking ewes along with general sheep jobs. Thankfully the frosty starts have followed through by glorious sunshine. This dry weather is working on our side and enabling us to keep the cattle outside, although grass is in short supply so we are having to subsidise with feed.

Last weekend the Stockton flock of pedigree Suffolks from John Sinnett, Worcestershire, was dispersed on-farm. The sale was well supported with a packed ringside of buyers from across Europe. Two stock rams, Birness Cracker and Caithness Corker heading the trade at 10,000gns apiece. Females sold to 7,000gns for a ewe lamb which had been a big show winner, selling to Messrs Turner Derbyshire.

Swaledale rams at Hawes sold to £32,000 for a shearling from the Acton family, but trade was generally down on the year with reduced averages.

A Welsh Mountain ram from T.T. Roberts, sold for 12,000gns at Llanrwst where trade was strong throughout.

Prime lamb averages have seen a small upward trend at the beginning of the week but nothing to get too excited about and store lamb trade still seems to be on the increase in spite of this.

Likewise, although prime cattle prices remain extremely steady demand for both short and longer keep stores is relatively good.

Sales coming up this week

Thursday, November 1 – Wright Marshall will be hosting a dispersal sale of the entire commercial herd of Holstein Friesians on behalf of J.A. and C.J. Sherwin at Beeston Castle Auction
Friday, November 2 – Fox Bennett will be holding a sale of farm machinery, implements and equipment at Bradshaw Farm, LE9 8JL
Saturday, November 3 – Welshpool will be holding a sale of In lamb British Berrichon & Charollais sheep at Welshpool Livestock Market
Saturday, November 3 – Wallets Marts will be hosting the Marts the Heart sponsored society sale of pedigree Salers cattle at Castle Douglas

Check out jobs from our sister site www.jobsinagriculture.com that might be of interest.

Experienced Herdsperson

We are currently looking to recruit an Experienced Herdsperson to work on our 300 cow Dairy Farm in Stirlingshire.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious person to work in a 300 HF unit in Central Scotland. The cows are TMR fed and have cubicle housing and rotary parlour.

Dairy Herd Manager

An experienced Dairy Herd Manager is required for a Progressive Organic 280 cow Autumn block calving unit on a 750 acre mixed Dairy and Arable Farm near Shrewsbury.

The responsibilities will include managing the herd, breeding, young stock, grazing, feeding and record keeping.

Until next week,

Steph

Well, what a night we had at the British Farming Awards! The room was full of familiar faces, and with a great atmosphere, it was a true celebration of Farming.

We were thrilled to present the winners of our SAI Global Marts the Heart Awards and recognise their outstanding contribution to the industry.

Lifetime Achievement Award - John Thomson Snr
Auctioneer of the Year - Russell Steer
New Auctioneer of the Year - Jonty Cliffe
Auction Cafe of the Year - Thrapston Market Cafe

The spirit of the mart industry was clear for the room to see as we presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Mr John Thomson Snr. He certainly treated the audience with a glimpse of his wry humour, whilst taking advantage of the commercial opportunity! He’s 94 and he’s sharper than many folk half his age!

Back to day-to-day life, I stayed down in Worcester for Paul Walker’s virtual dispersal sale of pedigree and commercial Blue and Limousins from the Crackleybank herd. The sale was really well attended with an in calf five-year-old cow topping at 3,200gns.

There have been some serious prices elsewhere this week. The one that everyone was talking about was the Blackie at Lanark selling for £160,000, a record price for the ram lamb, from the Dunlop family’s Elmscleugh flock, Dunbar, matching the price for a Dalchirla lamb at Dalmally, in 2015, The buyers were the Campbells, Glenrath, and Hugh and Alan Blackwood, Auldhouseburn.

Trade was better than many anticipated at Stirling bulls sales amid concerns about lack of forage and uncertainty around Brexit. Headline prices were 40,000gns for a Charolais bull Maerdy Newman from Esmor Evans which sold to Boden and Davies and Neil and Stuart Barclay and 22,000gns for an Aberdeen-Angus bull Linton Gilbertines Powerhouse from the estate of the late Gordon Brooke and an in-calf Angus heifer from the Moncur dispersal.

But aside from this, there was a steady demand for good bulls from commercial buyers with averages up for all breeds except Beef Shorthorns and decent clearance rates across the board demonstrating a certain amount of confidence amongst producers.

Elsewhere store cattle and sheep prices remain strong particularly for the better shorter finishing types.

Don't miss sales coming up this week...

Thursday, October 25 Bagshaws will be holding a genuine dispersal sale of 160 Limousin cattle on instructions from the exodus of the late David Twigg at Bakewell Market
Friday, October 26 J Bradburne and Price will be holding a Marts the Heart sponsored sale of store and dairy stock at Mold Mart
Saturday, October 27 Harrison & Hetherington, United Auctions, McCartneys and J Straker Chadwick will all be hosting the on-farm unreserved dispersal sale of the Stockton flock of Suffolk sheep followed by a sale of sheep handling equipment, general farm machinery and fodder at Stockton Court WR6 6UT
Saturday, October 27 Penrith will be holding an on-farm sale of tractors, implements, livestock and milking equipment on behalf of Mr T.J.B. Powley at High Field, Cumbria, CA10 2LG
Find more!

Being at the British Farming Awards made me reflect on how lucky we are to work in Agriculture. If you'd love to be part of it - or are looking for your next move - make sure you check out our sister brand Jobs in Agriculture.

UK Area Manager - Livestock Equipment

Find out more!

Dairy
Sales Manager

Find out more!

Don't forget to put your clocks back this Saturday!

Until next week,

Steph

Well, the weather was dreadful over the weekend when the rain came down like you wouldn’t believe. It was a little hairy when the river burst its banks swallowing up one of the fields. Luckily the sheep took to higher ground in the nick of time! Since then we’ve has misty, fresh starts where the days have been sunny. Hopefully, this continues so the ground dries up enabling us to keep the stock outside as long as possible to save on our scarce reserves of bedding and haylage.

Still plenty of sheep sales this week although its now getting towards the tail end of the breeding sales season. Derbyshire Gritstone records were smashed at Clitheroe when a ram from Kempson Brothers sold for 4,500gns, a new ram lamb record of 2,800gns was set by M and M Tattersall and ewes sold to a record £450/head for Susan Field.

Bluefaced Leicester shearling rams topped at £16,500 at Penrith for Messrs Lord's Hewgill flock.

Prime lambs are still a mixed trade with demand there for the better quality but averages generally below where they were this time last year.

In the cattle rings, store trade seems fairly strong even though there is little change in prime cattle prices. Next week is Stirling bull sales so it will be interesting to see what trade is like there.

Tomorrow night, we're honoured to present awards to our 2019 Marts the Heart Awards winners at the British Farming Awards. Don't miss a minute of the action - I'll be sharing all the news on Twitter @FGStephRyder and on our Facebook page FG Shows and Sales.

Sales coming up this week

Thursday, October 18 – Hexham and Northern will be holding their annual "Bellingham" Prize show & sale of spring-born calves at Hexham Mart
Friday and Saturday, October 19, 20 – Harrison and Hetherington will be holding a two-day show and sale of pedigree Limousin cattle at Borderway Mart
Saturday, October 20 – Clee Tompkinson and Francis will be holding an Autumn sale of 52 Working Sheepdogs at Sennybridge Market
Sunday and Monday, October 21, 22 –United Auctions will be hosting the annual Stirling Bull sales at Stirling Agricultural Centre
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Maybe see you at the British Farming Awards!

Steph

Sale Types

We’ve had a few frosty starts to the day this past week followed by glorious golden autumnal days. Over the weekend we had a couple more calves who are soaking up the welcome sunshine.

I’ve been out and about at a few sales recently where folk are definitely spending more prudently. Alston Moor Mule Gimmer lamb sale at Lazonby had plenty around the ringside, however trade was back on the year by around £20. Trade was rather selective at the sale of Blue Faced Leicesters at Hawes. It’s amusing to see various vehicles leaving the mart with recent purchases peering out of the cabs.

I whipped down to Hereford for the pre-show and sale society dinner on Monday evening. It was a great night of good company where breeders received a host of awards recognising the quality of their stock. Females sold well with a new female market record set at 7,500 gns for a Shraden 1 Alice P809 from the Timmis family, Baschurch. Bull trade is following the recent trend in pedigree cattle where buyers are cautious and clearance was considerably down.

Heifer calves stole the show at Oban’s show and sale of Highland Cattle. Leading the day at 4,000gns was Sonasag 2nd of Cladich, a January 2018-born heifer by Campbell of Tilbouries. It was consigned by Queenie Strickland, Dalmally.

Averages were up by £312.69 on the year at Newton Stewart’s sale of 250 Blackface rams. Leading the bids at £42,000 was a shearling from David Ferguson, Newton Stewart, which was knocked down to a syndicate of Willie Dunlop, East Lothian, Colin McClymont, Newton Stewart and Wilson, Jim and Colin Ramsay, Castle Douglas.

At Broughton’s Farmers Guardian supported sale of Herdwick and Swaledale rams, the sale leader at 4,000gns was A. Hartley, Broughton-in-Furness with a three-shear Herdwick ram. It was knocked down to Messrs Wilson, Bootle.

Records were also broken at Clitheroe where a new Lonk breed record of £7350 was set for a shearling ram from T. Whitwell and Son.

At Newark's Limousin Day top price was 9,000gns for the stock bull, Loosebeare Iain from Messrs Booth.

In the prime rings prime lambs have seen a very welcome lift in price at the beginning of this week - let's hope it continues in an upward direction. Cattle prices seem to be holding up and demand for both store lambs and cattle continues to be buoyant.

Sales coming up this week

Thursday, October 11 – Penrith will be holding a sale of 6,434 Swaledale, Herdwick, Cheviot and other hill bred ewes, gimmer shearlings & gimmer lambs at Penrith Auction Mart
Friday, October 12 – Craig Wilson will be holding a sale of 2100 home bred autumn and spring born suckled calves at Newton Stewart Market
Friday, October 12 – Cheffins will be holding a sale of agricultural tractors, combine harvester, self-propelled sprayer, implements and machinery at Garlands Farm, CM9 8RP
Monday, October 15 – Hassall Brothers will be holding a sale dispersal sale of 160 Holstein/Friesian and Brown Swiss Crosses on behalf of R.T. Smith and Son at Market Drayton Livestock Market
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Until next week,

Steph

All of a sudden it seems to be going dark earlier and earlier. I’ve been locking up the poultry at 7pm these past couple of nights.

The pigmy goats have been confined to the tup trailer in an attempt to get them to bond. No matter how we try to fence them in together around a nice sheltered shed, the original one, Kitty, springs over any fence and pings off back to the Suffolk ewes leaving the new kid blarting it’s head off. This wasn’t the plan!

All the cows due to calve have been brought close to home and we’ve had a couple of calves hit the ground this past week. It’s been mild enough, so they’ve had a gentle start to life. I’m still on tenterhooks waiting for my Shorthorn show cow to get on with it, but she’s showing no signs of bagging up.

Sheep breeding sales continue thick and fast with trade very mixed. North Country Cheviot rams equalled last year's centre record of £9000 at Lockerie at the Marts The Heart sale for a shearling from the Linthorpe Farming Partnership who also sold another at £4500.

Lleyn rams topped at 6,000gns at Carlisle for a shearling from Emrys and Dylan Jones' Lluest flock with some other good prices on the day.

Prime lamb trade remains fairly good for the better quality lambs but averages have slipped back as more commercial lambs come to the market. Store lamb prices are still remarkably good given the prime trade.

Fat cattle prices are holding up and there seems a good demand for store cattle in spite of concerns about lack of grass and winter fodder.

Sales coming up this week

Thursday, October 4 – Hawes Market will be holding a 'Marts the Heart' sponsored sale of 1,000 Bluefaced Leicester rams and females on behalf of the Bluefaced Leicester sheep society at Hawes Auction Mart
Friday, October 5 – Border Livestock will be holding their annual autumn Kelso racecourse machinery sale at Berwick-upon-Tweed
Saturday, October 6 – Market Drayton will be holding a dispersal sale of Suckler Cows on behalf of B.T. and V.E. Elkin of Dayhills at Market Drayton Livestock Market
Tuesday, October 9 – Hereford Market will be hosting a Marts the Hearts sponsored sale of pedigree Hereford cattle on behalf of the Hereford Cattle Society at Hereford Market
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Unitl next week,

Steph

Autumn has definitely landed. Over the past few mornings, the cars have been white over with frost! The crisp sunny weather has made it easier to catch up on those last minute jobs.

This week, we took our Pietrain cross GOS piglets to the rare breeds sale at Carlisle where it was mobbed.

I was fair pleased with the trade - gilts made £60 a piece whilst the boars made £48. With the profits burning a hole in my pocket, I went and spent it on ‘Katie’ the pygmy goat. She’ll be great company for our goat ‘Kitty’ that was orphaned earlier this year.

Its a busy time of year for auction marts and while in general averages are down for commercial breeding sheep elsewhere there seems to be money about for the top end pedigree stock.

The Ribble herd of Aberdeen-Angus was dispersed at Skipton for Henry Rowntree attracting a big crowd and peaking at 7,500gns twice for the bull Ribble Eritrean N031 and the heifer Ribble Black Belinda S489 which sold with its heifer calf.

At Sedgemoor the UK premier herd winner, the Oakroyal herd was dispersed yesterday on behalf of Dennis Smith topping at 5,600gns twice and commercial dairy trade also seems to have seen a bit of an uplift of late.

North Country Cheviots topped at £5000 at the Marts The Heart sale at Lockerbie for Synton Warrior from G Davies and Son and at Skipton's Northern Texel breeders sale, the national chairman Steve Richardson led the trade at 3,400gns for the shearling ram Stonebridge Albie.

Sales coming up this week

Thursday, September 27 – Richard Turner and Sons will be holding a dispersal sale on behalf of J.D. and V. Towers of lorry, tractors, equipment and machinery at Camp House Farm, Lancaster, LA2 9LH.
Friday, September 28 – Rugby Farmers Mart will be holding their annual ram fair of approx 2300 quality breeding sheep at Rugby Farmers Mart
Saturday, September 29 – Hopes Auction will be holding a Prize Show and Sale of 5000 continental Store Lambs at Wigton Market
Monday, October 1 – Newark Livestock Market will be holding the 780th Corby Glen Sheep Fair a grass field show and sale of all classes of breeding sheep, store lambs & rams at Corby Glen off the A151
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Until next week,

Steph

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