Weekly Sales News – 29th November 2016

Top price per kilo and per head – Mrs E Sargent – £190 & 442p per kg  – The champion pair of lambs

Report on trade: A larger entry of lambs this week on show week with almost 2000 in lambs in total on offer including approximately 300 show sheep for the 146^th Ashford Cattle Show. The lamb trade was just a touch easier than last week due to increased numbers on offer as some fed lambs are beginning to come out from the bigger finishers around the country. Weight was once again the determining factor in making the top money with buyers keen to get hold of the heavier carcasses to serve the wholesale trade. Top spot in the heavy commercial category was taken by Mr S King at £87.50 for some 52kg Texel cross lambs. Best export grade continental lambs sold with a marked premium following on from the show sheep with the best commercial lambs selling to 217p from Mr P Ashlee for some 41 kg Beltex lambs.

The Ashford pre Christmas show judging took place on Monday evening and was followed by the sale of the livestock on the Tuesday. Almost 300 lambs were presented for sale in total with a great presence from the Young Farmers Clubs around the county. It was mentioned a number of times what a great pleasure  to see all the young competitors in their classes taking a great pride in showing their livestock and other exhibits alongside the more experienced and regular handlers.

Paul Tamplin from Norfolk rose well to the challenge of judging the pairs classes and found his champion pair of lambs shown by Mrs Lizzie Sargent from Catsfield, East Sussex. These were a pair of 43kg Blue Texel x Beltex which sold for £190 to Lewis Howard & Son of Ringmer and the Offham Farmshop, Lewes. The reserve champion pen of lambs were a pair of Beltex crosses exhibited by Miss Katie Long of Mystole, Canterbury and sold for £133 to Mr Tony Fulk of Pirbright. The top spot in the pens of 5 lambs was taken by Mr Paul Ashlee, Woodchurch this year and his 34kg Beltex crosses sold to the judge, Mr Graham Dutton of Charing Meats, Ashford for £83. Reserve champion in the pens was taken by Mrs Caroline Worley and her 44kg Beltex cross lambs sold for £108 to Mr John Howe from Farm Butchers of  Tenterden.

Report on trade: A similar sized entry of just over 500 were penned this week with a stand on  trade to what we have seen in recent weeks. It was a steady and consistent  trade for all sorts on offer with top call £84 for P & C Burdens Suffolk cross ewes. Grazing sorts were still plentiful but the number of prospective purchasers of these ewes is reducing every week as the weather deteriorates. All in all no real fireworks here but a steady and consistent level of demand.

Top prices included Suffolk crosses to £84 from P & C Burden, continental ewes to £77 from Mr N Husk, Mules to £67 from J G & D G D White and Romneys to £66 from G Bradford

Report on trade: Just 3 pens sold to a top of £62.

Remember we have a final Friday sale for the year on 16^th December and this will included a special consignment of livestock and sheep farming equipment on behalf of Mr Jim Caird – see elsewhere in the report for more details

Report on trade: The Ashford Cattle Show for the Christmas season 2016 was well supported with led and penned cattle and numbers forward very similar to recent years. Trade was certainly keener and brighter throughout and giving more reward to the immense amount of time and trouble that producers put into their stock in order to show them at this high level. Local schools and Young Farmers Clubs again bringing forward good numbers but thanks also to many of our regular producers who presented stock to compete at the highest level and who reaped reward right to the very top!

Great thanks goes to our handled cattle judge, John Giffin of Petworth, who took much care and attention in all classes. John Howe of Farm Butchers, Tenterden kindly judged the penned classes for us this year.

Competition within classes was strong and competition at the Supreme Championship level was extreme but the final decision was a very popular win and went to a 570 kg Limousin steer shown by Miss Charlotte Husk, Dover. The steer also won the Best Young Farmers beast prize and the best East Kent exhibited beast award.  The steer went on to realise 300p per kg and £1707 to regular wholesale market supporters, P C Turner of Farnborough. The reserve champion was another Limousin steer, exhibited by the High Weald Academy YFC whose pupils, under the skilled tutelage of Nick Cooper, produced another dazzling team of show cattle. This animal caught the eye of regional butchers who competed strongly before it was finally knocked down to Fulk Bros of Pirbright at 365p and grossed £1895.

Top spot amongst the heifer prices went to another quality Limousin  bred by Ralph & Angie Dickson (as was the reserve champion) selling at 285p £1522 to E C Wilkes & Son of Cranbrook. The Wilkes family are great supporters of their local school and secured other quality animals at 270p and 258p for their high class high street butches business.

Fred Husk, and daughter Karen, both had to acknowledge defeat at the hand of Grand-daughter and daughter Charlotte however they both also had a good day selling to cattle to 250p and 242p to our penned cattle judge John Howe for his Tenterden and St Michaels Farm Butchers shops. Derek Southouse made his regular Christmas trip to Ashford aand had  success with his Limousin heifers selling at 248p and 242p, both taken by Lewis Howard & Son for their Ringmer butchers shop.

Supporting the market for most of the 52 weeks of the year Shaun Marsh brought forward some real quality cattle with his British Blue and Limousin steers selling to 250p and 245p and his similarly bred heifers made 232p and 230p. Regulars W Alexander (Shoreham) Ltd, led by David Latham and his son, produced a class act in the penned cattle section selling British Blue steers to 222p and Limousin heifers to 220p.

Report on trade: A small entry on show day met a very strong and positive trade and many more could have been readily sold. Mostly black and whites on offer but these were generally dried off, fed cows with more flesh than of late. A few beef cows carrying flesh were also dearer.

In the beef lines Charolais made 133p and 126p from J Boomaars; Simmental 116p £757 A & S Woodford & Sons and  Sussex 110p and £843 from PHR Farms.

From the dairy British Friesians under 3yr old (a slip) made 139p and £866 from PHR Farms. Cows saw  British Friesian 118p and £999 PHR Farms; Holstein Friesian 117p and £948 Goddard & Son; 111p, 110p,109p and to £953 Oncoland Ltd while Jerseys made 68p from S E Lane & Ptnrs.

300 plus cattle are expected in this section next Tuesday 6th December – catalogues are available online and in hard copy.

Next sale is Tuesday 6th December at 11.30am

Store and Finished Pigs – 47 Sold
Auctioneer: Mark Cleverdon 07748 202688

Report on trade: The pigs for the show were of high quality through all the pens and producers were rewarded with a solid trade. Thanks first to judge Paul Bowen from Sevenoaks for his work on Monday evening and then the at least 6 buyers who produced a healthy and competitive trade for the stock.

Hadlow College, Tonbridge exhibited the champion pair of finished pigs which sold to Ben Ferris and Paula Dean for their new business Greenhills Farm Food, Barham and their retails outlet in the high street at Bridge near Canterbury for 230p per kg (£197 each). Reserve champion spot  was secured by Brockhill Park YFCand their two pigs sold for 140p and  £131 to Cheale Meats, Brentwood. Shaun Fagg, trading as GHE, was the days largest purchaser with 16 pigs for his East Kent based wholesale business.

Cull sows made from 47p to 60p per kg with Cheale Meats purchasing the majority of the entry. Ben Hope had first prize in the show class and his “best sow by a mile in this market for many years“ quoting a regular market pundit! made 60p per kg.

All in all a good days business – pigs of all classes will be offered again next Tuesday and buyers have indicted demand will again be strong. We do not expect many pigs on the 20^th December sot after the 6^th the next opportunity to sell will be the first Tuesday in January.

Stop press ….

In addition to the store sheep to be offered for sale on Friday 16^th December  a dispersal sale of professional shepherds equipment on behalf of Mr Jim Caird will take place.

We will offer these lots immediately after the sheep sale at approximately 1pm.

The approximately 60 lots will include a Prattley 20 gate mobile sheep handling system, Yamaha Grizzly 700cc quad bike, Ritchie combi clamp c/w tow kit, Sheep turnover crate and scales, conventional baler, Rappa quad bike mounted electric fencer, approx’ 10,000m of assorted electric fencing inc. stakes, wire and netting; shearing equipment inc. 3 machines, droppers, handpieces and a wool packing frame; 3 point linkage mounted saw bench and log splitter, various troughs & feeders and other assorted livestock equipment.

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.

General news

Updated 29^thNovember 2016

For Sale – 2 Collie puppies from working puppies, ready to go plus one 9 mth old part trained Collie dog. North kent – please ring Keith on 07850224330

For Sale – Working Collie dog pup, Tri colour and 8 weeks old. Ready to go. East kent – please ring Cara on 07805343970 or 01227709833 (evenings).

Kent Herdsmans Club dates – Monday 10th December at 7.30pm – Christmas dinner and results of annual photographic competion.

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

Tuesday 13^th December at 6 for 6.30pm – Don’t miss “Carols at Christmas and live nativity here in Ashford in the main auction sales  ring – promoted by Kent RABI and FCN

News from Kent / South East RABI

The South East RABI would like to say “Thank you for supporting the recent harvest supper here in the market. Over 160 people attended and we all had a wonderful meal prepared by the Stock Pot and over £6,000 was raised in aid of R.A.B.I.

Dates for your diary include Tuesday 13^th December at 6pm for 6.30pm – Carols at Christmas will be held again in the Cattle Sales ring here in Ashford Market.

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.

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

Kent Herdsmans Club – For all details on Herdsman’s Club events contact Chairman Sandra Brown on 01233 502796 or Jo Masters 01580 240568. Meetings at the Conningbrook Hotel, Ashford.

Monday 10th December at 7.30pm – Christmas dinner and results of the annual photography competition.

News from Kent / South East RABI

The South East RABI would like to say “Thank you for supporting the recent harvest supper here in the market. Over 160 people attended and we all had a wonderful meal prepared by the Stock Pot and over £6,000 was raised in aid of R.A.B.I.

Dates for your diary include Tuesday 13^th December at 6pm for 6.30pm – Carols at Christmas will be held again in the Cattle Sales ring here in Ashford Market.