Weekly Sales News – 3rd July 2018

New season lambs Top price per head – £117 – T Masters; Top price per kilo – 249p – C & J Georgetti & Sons

Report on trade: A bigger entry of lambs with over 2000 penned once again and at times a difficult trade with a big gap between the best lambs and the extensively finished and lighter weight sorts. Still the heavier sorts and best finished lambs sold well in excess of £100 to a top price of £117 from T Masters with very few of his run of 200 lambs selling under £100. Another run of note were penned for C & J Georgetti & Sons and these sold to a top of £114.50 and with only one pen below £100. Best continental sorts were sold on a similar trade with an SQQ average returned at 214p which is slightly up on last week but in line with national figures for Monday.

Just a few hoggets were on offer which sold to a top price of £97 from Mrs E Spice for some very heavy Clun Forests. Very heavy mature clean sheep sold to £128 from C A Worley Farming Ltd.

Producers please note – For top results please present well fleshed lambs which are preferably dry and clean. Lairage facilities and dagging 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: Just under 500 ewes penned this week and we saw a similar trade to recent weeks with the best ewes selling in the £80-90 range. A few new (old) faces appearing in the pens for grazing ewes this week saw these ewes trading between £45-60.

More numbers are set to begin to come forward with the onset of lamb weaning upon us but with the Eid festival not too far away we should be able maintain the price levels we are currently seeing.

Auctioneer: Peter Kingwill 07795 200357

Report on trade: This week saw a much better offering of both under and over 30 mth cattle through the finished ring. Buyers were in an altogether more positive mood and looking for well fleshed slaughter stock as grazing conditions shorten and supply of grass finished cattle in many regions tightens.

Few cattle at the very top end but another wonderful draw from W Alexander (Shoreham) saw a superb Aberdeen Angus heifer, bred out of a continental cow, sell at 219p per kg and £1245, their Limousin heifer just behind at 216p £1293 whilst their steers sold to 217p and £1396. Smart handyweight Limousin steers from R A C Southall sold to 219p and 211p, grossing £1136 and £1084. A J Down’s run of Limousin and British Blue x Friesian steers sold to 206p £1118, and all made 195p plus. Sussex heifers from L Stevens & Sons to 195p and 190p with a well fleshed purebred Hereford steer from A R Ambrose to 181p £1101. Hereford cross steers from A & M Lyon sold to 186p twice and £1169 whilst his big Charolais cross steer grossed at £1478 185p.

A few more overage were on offer and all well received. A grand run of black and white steers, just under 36 months, sold to 164p £1101 and regularly 150-160p with 10 averaging. £1003. A run of lively 3yr old plus Sussex cross steers from A D Bentley sold to 189p and £1151.

Report on trade: It was very pleasing to see respectable numbers penned on another blazing hot haymaking day. Trade remains sensational with a decent number of fed beef cows achieving record rates while very few fleshed cows are coming from the dairy sector now with the cows straight from the grass, hard worked and lean. Keep looking and take advantage of this trade!

Best fed beef cows made 160-185p per kg, plenty 130 to 150p and little under 120p. Fleshed dairy culls made 130p plus but few forward with plain lightweights 75-100p.

Top calls included Limousin 185p £1439 W S Furnival (Brookland) Ltd and 177p £1368 R F & E A Simmons; British Blue cross 176p, 161p, 154p, 153p, 151p and £1296, £1251, £1190, £1087 W S Furnival (Brookland) Ltd; Blonde cross 172p £1122 W S Furnival (Brookland) Ltd; Simmental cross 168p, 148p £1196, £1077 W S Furnival (Brookalnd) Ltd; Sussex cross 153p £1186 K & P M Sinden & Sons; Sussex 134p(2) Miss A Sills and Belted Galloway 127p £797 (Non FA) Manor Farms.

In the dairy section Holstein 133p £934 Huddlestone Farms and 131p £996 P J Forknall; Montbelliarde 127p M H & M G Butcher and Jersey 100p, 99p £537 Hickson Bros.

A lean Limousin bull made 129p and £1074.

Auctioneer: Peter Kingwill 07795 200357

Report on trade: A decent midsummer offering of store cattle and despite the obvious concerns about the weather and its impact there was a respectable attendance of buyers and a fair trade. Quality was a little variable but customers, as always, were present for all grades and anyone with a mind to sell stores would be advised to ring the office with the likely best days falling on the pig and calf weeks for the next 2 months.

A smart little Lincoln Red cross bull sold to £600 from A W Vincent. Young cattle were well received with Aberdeen Angus steers 8mths £580 and heifers £570 from G D K George; Sussex steer 10mths £690 and heifers £590 and £550 A Sage and smart Limousin cross steers 12mths £830 for Mr B Wimble.

The trade for older grazing cattle felt a bit more impact from the weather but prices for better quality types holding well. Sussex steers 26mths £900 and heifers £905, £880 from J Brindley; Hereford steers 23mths £960, £860 A R Ambrose and Aberdeen Angus cross heifers 24mths £875 W K Gutsell.

Report on trade: Not a big entry today a trade very similar to recent weeks ie fair but not exciting – minds are on haymaking, summer field work rather than market.

The sale kicked off with a run of young calves from beef mothers which made to £380 for a Simmental bull, a heifer £270 and Aberdeen Angus crosses all £155 to £260. J W Boyd & Sons sold June born British Blue bulls to £175 and Aberdeen Angus bulls to £150, Kingcott Dairy a Brown Swiss heifer £105, J C & S K Williams a British Blue heifer, £215 and P J Forknall an Aberdeen Angus bull £185.

Report on trade: A “summer” flying trade for all classifications of pigs offered this week reflecting barbeque and hog roast demand and a general shortage of supply.

Messrs S Scott & Son and S J M Evans again both offered well bred finished pigs with weight which made to 140p per kg and 144p respectively grossing to £137 and £129. A heavy pig from B G & M A Tomsett grossed £142.80. This is a tremendous improvement in prices compared with anything seen in the last 7 months

The entry of cull sows sold to again a much improved trade with 41p to 54 covering all sold with 32p the top price for boars. Gross returns improved accordingly to a top of £145.

Store pigs were in demand however bred with a run of 22 Pietrain x Welsh from D J Cole making to £42 and averaging £39.77 and stronger but hard farmed black pigs £41 to £56.50.

Sheep Tagging

All sheep sent to market require to be correctly tagged.

Sheep under 12 mths – Single electronic batch tag and ewes and over 12 mths – Double tagged

Incorrectly tagged sheep may have to be returned home. Single electronic batch tags are not acceptable for ewes and sheep over 12 mths.

Hobbs Parker and Ashford Livestock Market

We are the South East’s principal livestock market selling around 250,000 head of cattle, sheep and pigs in 2017.

Weekly sales throughout the year of all classes of stock, principally on Tuesdays, run by a fully professional team of auctioneers and support staff, they provide an unmatched level of service and commitment to the livestock farmers in the area. Come and see us on market day soon and bring your livestock for us to sell

No More Exempt Section

It is with regret that we will no longer be able to offer an exempt section at Ashford with immediate effect.

The rigid requirements for total separation and the difficulties associated with cleansing and disinfecting significant market areas during the middle of a sale gives us no alternative but to withdraw from the exempt sale process.

We recognize that this will give less marketing options to farmers from East Sussex and other one year testing counties and we will be happy to talk through alternative options.

May we thank all who have supported the section over recent years. We will continue to monitor and review Bovine TB issues as they change and develop.

Vehicle Bedding

We have been reminded by Trading Standards to remind you that bovine animals under 6 mths of age and travelling over 50km require bedding.

Ashford Cattle Show summer competitions

Entries are now required for these – thanks to sponsors this year Agrii for crops, Wilkins Kennedy and Hallett & Co for sheep flocks and Michael Owen AnimalScan for beef herds.

For Sheep flocks please contact Ian Lockwood 07779297153 email: hello@duckpitvalley.co.uk

For Beef herds please contact Charlie Bull 01797 230503 or 07825 665498 email: bull_herd04@btinternet.com

For Crops please contact Tim Porter 07557 200611 email: tim@fengrain.co.uk

Miscellaneous livestock and general goods and services for sale and wanted ex farm

Wanted – small P6 / P7 size livestock trailer – 07967 648294

Wanted – Older / semi retired / retired collie dog. Speak to Angus in the Stockpot

For Sale – 3 Collie puppies, 2 bitches and 1 dog, ready now. West Sussex. 07787 523220

Wanted – Wye Community Farm are building a pole barn for our young farmers livestock, and are in search of donated/cheap fittings including ring feeders, water troughs and pipe, cattle gates, sheep hurdles, feed troughs etc. Happy to collect. Thank you. Contact Richard on 07947 371765 or visit www.wyecommunityfarm.org.uk

RABI, Young Farmers Clubs and Kent Herdsmans Club News

RABI

Well done Kent fundraising Committee – for the 7^th time in 13 years the county committee have been awarded the Beaufort shield as the top fundraising county in the country (over £81,000 in 2017). Lord Plumb presented the shield to Andrew Brealey, Charles Tassell, Robert Pickard and Sheila Adams

Future fundraising events

Saturday 29^th September – Annual Harvest Supper – Amos Hall, Ashford Market, Ashford. TN24 0HB

For further information on all RABI events in Kent ring Charles Tassell – 01622 858733, 07973 412179 or email charles@tassell.co.uk

Kent Herdsmans Club

For all details on Herdsman’s Club events contact Chairman Alan Jull 07708283220 or Jo Masters 01580 240568.