Weekly Sales News – 28th March 2017

Top price per kg – 207p – P Ashlee; Top price per head – £94.50 – R G Gibson & Son

Report on trade: A bigger entry and greatly improved trade throughout the sale saw all weight bands improved by around 10p per kg on average in comparison to last weeks figures with the medium weight sheep improving by almost 15p. Trade has certainly shown a good lift since the beginning of the week with the likely reason being some large supermarket contracts wishing to build up a supply of lamb for the Easter marketing campaign. With these supermarket customers coming into the market place, the importance of Farm Assurance certification is clearly visible with the SQQ figures returned for Farm assured sheep being 8p per kg ahead of those non assured sheep.

Best quality sheep sold to 207p from P Ashlee for some very shapey Beltexs with the top spot in the heavy weights taken by R G Gibson and Son for some heavy weight Charollais crosses at £94.50. These were closely followed by S B & A E Martin at £91 for some smart Texel hoggets weighing 48kgs.

Producers please note – For top results please present well fleshed lambs which are preferably dry and clean. Lairage facilities are available every Monday evening.

Sheep sales here in Ashford are supported by buyers representing a large cross section of abattoirs throughout the country. Please ensure your FABBL status is up to date and if you are not FABBL assured seriously consider becoming so – certain buyers are restricted to the purchase of only farm assured stock.

Report on trade: A fair entry of over 600 sheep penned this week with a similar trade for the ewes on offer and an improved average which could be attributed to the better quality of ewes on offer this week. More ewes sold in excess of £75 than we have seen for a few weeks to a top price of £111 for strong pure Texel ewes from M D & T Healy.

Top prices included Texel ewes to £111 from M D & T Healy, Suffolk crosses to £86.50 from R L Goodman & Son with Mules to £77.50 and Romneys to £72 again from R L Goodman & Sons.

Auctioneer: Elwyn Davies 07710 803901

Report on trade: As expected we penned reduced numbers of store hoggets at this late stage in the season. Trade is holding well at similar levels to recent weeks with Texel crosses topping at £67 from P Tassell, Suffolk crosses £66 from J S Rye and Charollais cross £63 from J H & A H Godden. Only small long keeping sorts made below £50. Averages: Top £67 and aver £47.20.

One pen of ewes with lambs at foot saw aged Suffolk cross ewes with Charollais lambs to £90 (£45 per life) from C B Hope.

Report on trade: A much smaller entry than expected sold to the strongest trade ever experienced by the auctioneer (who has sold sock lambs for every year of his 37 practising in Kent!). The sale average was £24.58 With the best generally making in the high £20’s and a few £30 plus with a pure Texel ewe lamb £37 and a Texel x Mule wether £41.

Finished Cattle – 45 Sold
Auctioneer: Elwyn Davies 07710 803901

Report on trade: This week saw a similar trade with 8 individual buyers competing with well for all different qualities on offer. Smart butcher types were in short supply with a Limousin cross heifer topping the market at £1210 (204p) from W Alexander (Shoreham). The majority of commercial sorts sold from 170p to 190p with a Limousin cross steer grossing well at £1215 (189p) from R F & E A Simmons and a Simmental cross heifer at £1081 (187p) from regular consigner A J Down.

Over 30 mths cattle made up to £1060 for an Aberdeen Angus cross heifer from A J Thompson & Sons.

Report on trade: Another superb trade for the cows and possibly as dear as we have seen them this year. Numbers are holding up well at Ashford but please have a good look through your potential candidates before turning out. Empty cows and the occasional problem cow would be best sold on this trade rather than running around to try again. Dairy farmers are scenting the grass and want milk in the tank but again look at the yard weight carefully before turning to grass.

No purebred continental beef cows were offered but tidy meat and feeding types made 130-150p per kg and nothing under 110p bar the very oldest. Blonde crosses made 154p, British Blue crosses 146p, 137p and £950 and Aberdeen Angus crosses 139p all from W S Furnival; Simmental crosses 143p £999 M J Ashworth and Beef Shorthorn crosses 145p, 140p, 128p from N P Miles.

Dairy culls met another tremendous trade and more cows of all grades were wanted. Exempt cows were just as dear as the rest. Holstein Friesians made 131p, 128p, 125p, 123p and £1094, £1064 (9 av £912) from Appleton Farms; 126p (2) £947 J S & M D Antrum and 127p £967 D Murdoch & Sons. Jerseys 96p (2), 95p, 93p, 91p from Hickson Bros.

Fleshed stock bulls were wanted and lean older types made a little less. A Limousin grossed £1122.

Report on trade: A similar trade for a reduced entry of cattle with 15 successful individual buyers ensuring strong prices throughout. While the majority of cattle are from TB low areas there are plenty of customers around the ring competing well for TB high and edge cattle.

Principal prices included:               

Continental bred cattle                                                                                    

Report on trade: A disappointingly small entry was in front of plenty of buyers and the trade reflected this demand with all calves looking well sold. We could have sold many more both beef bred and dairy bred bulls. The prices quoted below speak for themselves.

Highlights this week included:

British Blue Bulls to £340 at 12 weeks from H O Champneys Ltd; £295 at 5 weeks from W S Furnival Ltd and £315 at 2 weeks from P J Forknall.

British Blue Heifers to £355 at 9 weeks from H O Champneys Ltd and £195 at 4 weeks from J W Boyd & Sons.

Blonde cross bulls to £275 at 4 weeks from W S Furnival Ltd

Simmental cross bulls to £3754 from H O Champneys Ltd

Aberdeen Angus Bulls to £340 at 8 weeks from S Reynolds; £285 at 2 weeks from P J Forknall and £265 at 7 weeks from H O Champneyss Ltd

Aberdeen Angus heifers made to £230 at 2 weeks from P J Forknall and £205 twice at 4 and 6 weeks from S Reynolds.

Hereford cross steers to £400 4 to 5 mths with heifers to £395 and Aberdeen Angus bulls £455 from M Gammons

British Blue bulls and steers £450 (5 averaged £422) at 4 to 5 mths, Simmental cross steers £440 and heifers, £445 at 5 to 6 mths from M Gammons

Holstien bulls to £205 at 3 to 4 mths from M Gammons while young Holstein bulls made £88 to £110 from W S Furnival Ltd and younger models £32 to £88 from J W Boyd & Sons and Friesian bulls £90 and £100 from P J Forknall at 2 weeks. A Brown Swiss bull made £150 at 10 weeksold from S Reynolds.

25 Dairy bulls averaged £89.75

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 your entries for forthcoming sales – it does help.

Store and Finished Pigs – 107 Sold

Auctioneer: Mark Cleverdon 07748 202688

Report on trade: This weeks sale saw an improved trade in all 3 categories and generally stronger demand as spring arrives and plans begin to be made for summer events and hopefully a healthy demand for British pork.

Best finished pigs made this week came from H W Richards (120p per kg and £105), P W & P Sim (118p and £98) and HMP East Suttons Saddlebacks (124p and £99). The rest all made 75p to 112p and all met healthy competitive bidding.

In the cull pens trade improved by about 6p per kg with the best making 52 to 57p and boars 51p

Store pigs were wanted to with S Scott & Sons best £54, young good shaped pigs £42.50 from D Pope.

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.

Report on trade: This weeks sale saw an improved trade in all 3 categories and generally stronger demand as spring arrives and plans begin to be made for summer events and hopefully a healthy demand for British pork.

Best finished pigs made this week came from H W Richards (120p per kg and £105), P W & P Sim (118p and £98) and HMP East Suttons Saddlebacks (124p and £99). The rest all made 75p to 112p and all met healthy competitive bidding.

In the cull pens trade improved by about 6p per kg with the best making 52 to 57p and boars 51p

Store pigs were wanted to with S Scott & Sons best £54, young good shaped pigs £42.50 from D Pope.

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.

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Lairage bookings for Monday and Thursday evenings

Please ring David Martin on 07860 114650 to confirm when you are delivering stock to the market for overnight lairage.

Hobbs Parker Auctioneers and Car Auctions

run over 200 auction sales every year

Our next Auction Sales are ……

Land & Property

Commercial Vehicles

Thursday 6^th April at 3.00pm

Commercial vehicle sale

Pedigree Sussex Spring Show & Sale

Friday 7^th April

This is the Sussex Cattle Societies sale of breeding bulls and females. Catalogues are now available

Horse & Saddlery Sale

Thursday 13^th April at 10am

Catalogues will be available about a week before the sale.

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

Collective Machinery & Equipment sale

Friday 21^st April at 9.30am.

Catalogues will be available about a week before the sale.

Lots will include new & newly near mowers & garden machinery. New tools, farm & agricultural equipment, timber plus large selection of miscellaneous items.

Shenley Farm Machinery sale

Saturday 13^th May 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

DEFRA and our Local Authority trading standards officers regularly remind us of our responsibilities regarding unfit animals. No unfit animal should be exposed for sale in a market.

We have been reminded by the Local Authority that it is against current Welfare and Market Regulations to move stock to market, or any other holding, in the final stages of pregnancy (final 4 weeks). Please be careful with dates on breeding stock and cull stock that might turn out to be in lamb or in calf.

All animals should be fit to travel. All in milk cows should to be milked out prior to movement to market. Do not present lame sheep or those, for any reason, which are not fit to be transported.

Thanks for your attention to these matters.

Livestock entry forms, FCI declarations and movement licences

It is essential that these forms are fully completed for every consignment of stock brought to the market. Please help us to provide you with the high level of service you expect from us by getting this right.

It is a legal requirement that entry form and food chain declarations are competed correctly.

We regularly notice that the information is missing from forms. Please can you ensure that all information is completed in future.

It would be very useful to market staff and thereby help with the speed of processing your stock, if a few further simple rules were followed on entry forms particularly for larger entries.

1. Steers and heifers are listed separately.
2. Passports are presented in numerical order.
3. Breeds are listed separately – for example Aberdeen Angus away from Limousin

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South East Point to Point Meetings (www.pointingse.com)

Updated 28^th March 2017 

The fixture list for the season has been circulated with this report recently. Further copies are available here in the market

Sunday 9^th April – Southdown & Eridge; Godstone, Surrey. RH9 8DB at 2.15pm

Saturday 15^th April – Ashford Valley; Charing, Kent. TN27 0JS – 2pm

Monday 17^th April – East Kent: Aldington, Kent. TN25 7EJ – 2pm.

Saturday 22^nd April – Old Surrey, Burstow and West Kent; Penshurst, Kent. TN8 7DD – 2pm

Saturday 29^th April – Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray; Parham, West Sussex. RH20 2ER – 2pm

Hay, Straw and fodder

Updated 28^th March 2017

For Sale – 400 4ft round bales of 2016 season made hay on a West Kent dairy farm. Ring 07769 697934.

For Sale – Large quantities of hay. Ring 07860 623196.

For Sale – Large quantity Quadrant rectangular bales of 2016 season made threshed ryegrass hay. Good quality. Romney Marsh. Ring 07885703458

For Sale – Large quantities of 2016 made and gathered organic hay, haylage and silage. Buckhurst Park, East Sussex. Ring 01892 770220 or email:

For Sale – 100 Mini Hesston 4 string bales of oat straw, 60 Mini Hesston 4 string and 200 4’ round bales of exceptional hay. Transport can be arranged get at cost. East Sussex. Ring 01580 819000 or 07768 771933

For Sale – 157 Massey Ferguson 8’ x 4’ 6 string bales of 2016 season gathered winter barley straw, stored dry. East Kent. Ring 07703 130575

For Sale – 2000 Conventional bales of 2016 season made meadow hay. East Kent. Ring 07885 305520.

For Sale – 150 Claas Quadrant 2016 season gathered winter barley straw, stored dry. Ashford area. Ring 07850 789113.

For Sale – upto 500 Conventional bales of 2016 season made hay. West Kent. Ring 07905 269113.

For Sale – 200 Round bales of 2016 season made meadow hay. Maidstone area. Ring 07813 741636

For Sale – 50 Round wrapped bales of 2016 season made haylage from organically farmed grassland. Mid Kent. Ring 01233 756468.

For Sale – 500 bales of 5` long mini Hesston bales of July 2016 meadow grass haylage with delivery available at cost. Chiddingfold, Surrey. Ring 01428 654695 or 07966 452256.

For Sale – 300 to 400 wrapped 4 string bales of 2016 season haylage and 50 7’ long 6 string bales of meadow hay. Kent / Sussex borders. Ring 07773 384271 or 07973 634519.

To advertise your stocks in this section please speak to Mark Cleverdon or Adam Leonard for details of our very reasonable charges

RABI, FCN, Kent Herdsmans, Ashford Cattle Show and YFC Club news

Updated 28^th March 2017

Fund raising events over the next few months include:

Beef Dinner, British Beef Week – Saturday 22^nd April. London Beach Hotel, Tenterden. TN30 6HX. Limited to 100 tickets. Ring David Chantler 01622 850207

Kart Racing – April or May, date TBC. Buckmore Park. Ring Charles Tassell 01622 858733

Elmley Bird Sanctuary private tour and barbeque  – Sunday 14^th May. Emley, Isle of Sheppey. ME12 3RW. Ring Roger Pickard 01227 832045 for full details

Watch this space for details of more events next week and ongoing

Kent Herdsmans Club

Monday 10th April at 7.30pm – visit to Ovenden Tipper Services, Eythorne, Dover. CT15 4ND

For all details on Herdsman’s Club events contact Chairman Alan Jull 01304 852991 or Jo Masters 01580 240568

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Kent Wool Growers wool sheet distribution

Wool sheets will be available between 10am and 3 pm on Tuesdays 4^th and 11^th April. Further information is available from the Wool desk on 01233 648052

Shearing course

A British Wool Marketing Board shearing course will be held at Rye on Monday 22^nd and Tuesday 23^rd May. This is for all standards, beginners to advanced. Please contact Alison Gould on 01647 24804 or Charles Fuggle on 07885 226428 or email agould@britishwool.org.uk for details

Sheepdog wanted

A local shepherd is looking for a 4 to 6 year old working collie (either sex). Please ring 01233 720181.

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Hobbs Parker Car Auctions

Their next special sale is their Spring bank Holiday extravaganza sale for all classes of vehicles on Monday 1^st May – well over 500 vehicles will be offered including a wide selection of 4 x 4 models.