Thank you for all the suggestions for the calf’s name. Many made us chuckle and in the end, we settled on Ronnie (after Ronnie Corbett). Thanks for all your cracking ideas though. I'll keep you posted on how he gets on.

It certainly is the place for births at home at the minute. We had a batch of Brahma chicks hatch along with our sow producing another strong litter of 12 piglets. I waste so much time watching their antics.


On top of that, my Suffolk show ewe finally lambed a strong tup lamb. Last year, as a gimmer, she rejected her lamb. However, this time it’s a completely different tale and she’s proving to be the most doting mother ever.




The pedigree sale season is underway. At the British Blue sale at Carlisle at the weekend, quality bulls were sought after. Leading the trade at 10,000gns was Pendle Lynx, with Stonebyres Levi making 9,000gns. Both these top priced bulls sold to Aucheneck Estates, Stirlingshire. The overall average bull price was £6,006.

On the same day, a reduction of the Haltcliffe herd of pedigree Limousins peaked at 8,000gns for the in-calf heifer Haltcliffe Maria, selling to Paul Dawes, Mary Cormack and Richard Bartle.

Store cattle are still a very good trade so, hopefully, this will give the commercial buyers confidence ahead of the first round of the Stirling bull sales next week. See our preview in Farmers Guardian's beef supplement this week.

The prime lamb price is continuing its steady rise and is well ahead of this time last year. Again, this seems to be driving the store lamb trade which is on fire.



Sales coming up this week 

The continuing snow and high winds really make you feel sorry for the stock outside. Lambing has slowed down now until the next batch. That said, the cattle have been taking up our attention.

At the start of the year, we had twin Limousin calves which are thriving. This week, however, we lost a calf - and then only last night a Shorthorn heifer calved an unplanned arrival. You've never seen anything like it. It's the size of one my Suffolk lambs. Looks like we're breeding 'micro-cattle'. I'll have a think on what we end up naming him. Head over to our Facebook page to leave your suggestion. Next week I'll let you know which one I've chosen.

As the new year gets underway and the dark nights provide a slight release on their winter hold, so begins another season of selling for auction marts across the country.

Farmers Guardian's sales of the year article in the January 5 issue titled 'Sales highlights: A record breaking year of pedigree trade' certainly summarised what has been a stellar year of trading throughout the country and across the livestock sector.

At home over the holiday break we really got into the swing of lambing the ewes which had been artificially inseminated. There were one to two hairy moments, one of which was a day where we had our annual party for friends and local neighbours, where we spent most of the time of the party in the lambing shed. One of our gimmers had to have a caesarean, the vet had only been gone a few hours and had to be called back to deal with the same gimmer chucking her lamb bed out. Eventually all was okay and, touch wood, she's still on the mend and raising her lamb well.




After a hectic period of Christmas sales, this time of year is relatively quiet around the markets. January does bring the first opening store sales, which have received some strong entries.

At Penrith, store cattle sold to £1,375 for a Limousin steer from H.G. Jackson, while at Cockermouth, the overall champion, a Limousin cross heifer from K.D. Harryman topped the bids at £1,580. Thainstone's anniversary show and sale of stores hit £1,400 for the champion, a 16-month-old steer from P. Cooper and Son.

The opening sale of store hoggs at J36 saw just under 1,000 lots forward where Beltex topped at £78/head. At Bentham's YFC 'singles night', the champion, a 36kg shortwooled hogg from Richard Lancaster made a cracking £250.

Continental in-lamb females continue to be in demand. At Beeston, Texel's flew to 4,100gns for a shearling from the Spiros Spyrou's Gib Farm flock, while a Beltex ewe from Stuart Wood of the Woodies flock topped at 1,300gns.

At Northern Ireland’s first pedigree Texel sale of the year, John Trimble’s Curley flock took the top price billing after selling a shearling for 2,400gns.

Dairy prices at the regular monthly fixtures have fallen which is to be expected at this time of year.

Good luck to all vendors and buyers this year!

Steph

Sales coming up this week

• Thursday, January 11  - E.A. Lane and Son will be holding its 54th annual produce sale at Spring Grange Farm, Leics, LE7 3BQ.
• Thursday, January 11  - Harrison and Hetherington will be holding a tractors, machinery, plant and small tools sale at Borderway Mart. For all tractor lovers, don't miss our free machinery and tractor magazine that's out with this week's Farmers Guardian. It's jam-packed with everything you need to know about LAMMA and loads of machinery, tractors and kit for sale.
• Friday, January 12 - McCartneys will be holding a sale of 56 pedigree Texel in-lamb ewes at Ludlow Market.
• Monday, January 15 - North West Auctions will be hosting its January dairy extravaganza to include show and sale of 50 pedigree and commercial dairy cattle and Holstein breeding bulls at Lancaster Mart.