Weekly Sales News – 2 August 2016

Sheep sales reports

Finished Sheep – 2,202 Sold

Auctioneer: John Rossiter 07557 392903

Top price per kilo – 221p – Mrs C Worley: Top price per head – £100.80 – T Husk

 Report on trade: A larger entry this week with 25% more lambs penned, which was certainly helped by the wet morning putting a stop to any harvesting in Kent! Trade was at a similar level to last week with the average returned just 1p above last week but the best continental “export grade” lambs were exceptionally well sold this week with several pens making in excess of 200p per kg to a top of 221p  (£86) from Mrs C Worley and 219p from  T Husk (£100.80). Another super run of sheep from G H Dean & Co sold to a strong demand to a top of 210p. Heavy weight lambs were also well sold as they were in short supply with no great number of lambs above 44kgs. The best of this section sold to £92.50 form S M Sillibourne and £90.50 from A C Hulme & Sons for 50kg and 49kg lambs respectively.

Report on trade: A similar sized entry and a comparable trade this week with the genuine grazing sorts looking to best sold on the day. Several buyers were present to secure sheep to farm on over the coming months which in turn pushed the prices upwards on other grades of ewe. Best ewes sold to £91 from GH Dean & Co.

Top prices this week included continentals to £91 and Suffolks to £90 from G H Dean and Co, Mules to £75.50 from W A Groombridge & Sons and Exors C S Wills and Romneys to £72.50 from Langrish Farmers.

Sold this week by Richard Wood

Report on trade: This was a similar trade for increased numbers this week. A good number of good conformation cattle were forward and there was plenty of flesh on most of the commercial cattle as well.

Top prices in both the steers and heifers went to D W Ferguson Ltd with 219p per kg for their British Blue heifer and 216p for a Limousin steer. M B Farms followed close behind with a heavyweight heifer at 755kg making 210p and grossing £1581.

There wer more bulls forward than we have seen for a long time. T Castle and Sons 640kg British Blue x Friesian mada a top price of 178p grossing £1142 and a Sussex bull from L Stevens and Sons made 172p.

Sold this week by Richard Wood

Report on trade: By all accounts cull cows are getting a little thin on the ground and our regular team of buyers were certainly not hanging back for all stock on offer, particularly the lean and steaky cows which were dearer by 4 to 5p per kg.

At the top end some decent beef cows all made 125 to 140p with a super 9 yr old Limousin from Geoffrey Bates Ltrd 142p and other strong cows from his run grossing to £1133. 4 Limousin and Simmental cross cows from R F & E A Simmons all made 136 to 138p and Sussex made to 134p for a 9 yr old from Harbourne Farm. The pick of the dairy cows included British Friesians to 128p from Debden Court Ltd and R Torrance & Son, but top call was 130p for a 4 yr old cow from Huddlestone Farm Ltd. Jerseys sold to 108p (£617) from Hickson Bros.

A large selection of Holstein Friesians straight from work and very plain made from 45 to 70p for the worst examples and those with a bit of cover looked very well sold for 80 to 105p.

Sold this week by Richard Wood.

Store and Breeding Cattle – 171 Sold

Auctioneer: Richard Wood

Report on trade: A good size entry for a mid summer sale with the unseasonal weather drawing a few more people round the ring than suspected at this time of year. Demand for all on offer was strong with E & J Maylam selling yearling British Blue x Friesian steers to £660 and heifers to £615 and the pick of the younger cattle saw Beaute Farms single suckle Blonde cross steers at  £785. P & G & J Carden’s 18 mth British Blue cross steers made to £840 and K Loverage’s 18 mth heifers made to £765. The same vendors Simmental heifers made £815.

The native cattle also sold well with M Donaldsons Aberdeen Angus steers making to £1040 and heifers to £820 while West Court Farms 27 mths Sussex steers made to £890 and their heifers to £760. Heavy Simmental cross steers from E T Ledger & Sons made to £1110 and British Blue x Friesians from P Taylor to £990.

Report on trade: Numbers coming forward for our fortnightly sales have been growing and it was good to see nearly a hundred penned and plenty of customers around the ring looking to purchase stock. A cracking trade resulted with 18 individuals purchasing stock.

Headlines include

British Friesian bulls to £140 at 3 weeks form R L W Parrett

British Bull bulls to £400 at 11 weeks from Ledger Farms

British Bull heifers to £400 at 12 weeks from Ledger Farms

Aberdeen Angus bulls to £385 at 14 weeks from M Gammons

Aberdeen Angus bulls to £335 at 5 weeks from S Reynolds

Aberdeen Angus heifers to £234 at 6 weeks from S Reynolds

Holstien bulls to £142 at 16 weeks from N J & G M Lambert

Limousin bulls to £405 at 20 weeks from M Gammons

Limousin heifers to £405 at 20 weeks from M Gammons

13 sellers and 18 buyers for calves today – the auction system working to produce a tremendous trade for the stock offered

Please keep your entries of calves coming. At our fortnightly sales we expect to have plenty of enquiries for all shapes, sizes and ages of stock. Thank you all for texts and messages with early notice of yor entries for forthcoming sales – it does help.

Report on trade: This week’s sale did not see the real high prices of 2 weeks ago but we can report a solid trade through all sizes and grades of pigs offered confirming the stronger demand nationally for pigs. Returns to producers of finished pigs compare very favourably with deadweight quotes and contract prices.

The best finished pigs made to 120p per kg for P W & P Sim while other good pigs (including many from the Kent Show pens) made 106 to 116p. C B Hopes run made to 110p and averaged £85.72. Heavy pigs produced top gross returns of over £110 for both the North School and Brockhill Park YFC’s.

Cull sows and boars were short this week making to 40p and £92.

In the store pig pens strong weaners made to £51 from P & R Marshall, ££44 from S Scott & Son and £52 from Valley Park YFC

Our pig sales are held once a fortnight and with the summer now we are seeing plenty of competition and more confidence in the pig sector after very low levels which prevailed for about 3 months in the spring. Please keep in touch with us here in Ashford if you have pigs to sell.

Hobbs Parker Auctioneers and Car Auctions run over 200 auction sales every year

Our next Auction Sales are ……

Collective Machinery & Equipment sale

Friday 5^th August at 9.30am. Full catalogues are available both online and from our offices here in the Market

Around 1,000 lots are expected including new & newly near mowers & garden machinery

New tools, farm & agricultural equipment, timber plus large selection of miscellaneous items.

Store and Breeding Sheep sale

Friday 12^th August at 11am

This is our second of 14 late summer and autumn sales and we will pen upto 6,000 principally store lambs plus an early entry of breeding sheep.

Commercial Vehicle sale

Thursday 18^th August at 3.00pm

A wide selection of up to 40 vehicles are generally offered in these sales

Horse & Saddlery Sale

Thursday 18^th August at 10am. Entries close Wednesday 3^rd August   

Entries expected of riding ponies, event horses and youngstock

New & nearly new saddlery & tack, grooming kit, yard equipment, rugs, harness

Riding boots, show jackets, jodhpurs, body protectors, yard clothing & boots

Special Vehicle sale

Monday 29^th August from 10am

This auction of cars will include a special sales of 4 X 4, Diesel, sports and high performance, commercial and general vehicles. Up to 500 vehicles will be on site and in the sale.

Sale of Boats and Maritime items at Ramsgate Harbour

Saturday 17^th September

Entries expected of a wide selection of boats and other items and equipment.

Chilli Farm Machinery sale

Saturday 1^st October at 9.30am

Large entries of tractors, trailers, vehicles, arable equipment, haymaking equipment, tractor attachments & spares, livestock kit, garden machinery, workshop tools and a large and varied selection of rural bygones are expected

Upto 500 lots of shrubs and garden plants and hedging and trees will also be offered

Collective Machinery & Equipment sale

Friday 11^th November at 9.30am.

New & newly near mowers & garden machinery

New tools, farm & agricultural equipment, timber plus large selection of miscellaneous items.

**************************************************************************************************

General news

Updated 2^nd August 2016

For Sale  – the remaining bitches from a litter of working sheepdog puppies – 8 weeks old  Ex farm on the Kent / Sussex borders. Ring 07976 255431

Wanted – a small number Beef Shorthorn breeding females for a farm in East Kent

For Sale ex farm 3 in pig Saddleback Sows due in the next month to six weeks from an East Kent farm

Upto 10 late spring calved pedigree Sussex cows. Hertfordshire – TB Low.

Quantity of 2015 made clamped maize silage in the Tonbridge area. Ring 07771 657402“

Farmers Weekly Awards 2016 – we congratulate 3 nominees, who have connections with the market and Hobbs Parker, who have reached the final stages of these competitions (top 3). Gordon Wyeth from Ropley, Hampshire in Sheep Farmer of the Year, Andrew Howard from Hothfield in Arable Farmer of the Year and  Peter Brown from Bicester in Beef Farmer of the Year.

Kent Herdsmans Club – For all details on Herdsman’s Club events contact Chairman Sandra Brown on 01233 502796 or Jo Masters 01580 240568

Monday 1st August  at 7.30pm – visit to Trottenden Farm, Lidwells Lane, Goudhurst, Cranbrook. TN17 1ES to view their Pedigree Sussex Cattle.

Monday 12th September at 7.30pm – visit to Brattle Farm Museum, Pinnock Lane, Staplehurst. The museum is signed by brown ‘tourist’ signs from main road through Staplehurst.

Sunday 4^th September – Romney Marsh Ploughing and Cultivation Society Ploughing Match at Scotney Court Farm, Lydd, Romney Marsh. TN29 9JP. For all details email: romneyploughing@yahoo.co.uk or ring Chairman Alan Higgs on 07785 783662.

Saturday 17^th September – High Tilt Farm, Sissinghurst, Cranbrook, Kent. Full details available from secretary Karen Wheeler 01580 753206 or on www.wkpma.co.uk.

For up to date information on all livestock sales please contact

Elwyn Davies (Sheep) 07710 803901 or 01233 861263

Peter Kingwill (Cattle & Sheep) 07795 200357

Martin Crowhurst (Sheep & Cattle) 07710 803903 or 01797 343936

Simon Husk (Sheep & Cattle) 07885 968077 or 01304 842393

Mark Cleverdon (Rams, Breeding Cattle, Pigs & Calves) 07748 202688

John Rossiter (Cull ewes & store sheep plus commercial vehicles) 07557 392903