Sensational awards and show-stopping sheep

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.