Livestock & Dairy: Bakewell Market

Another very busy market at Bakewell with 857 cattle and 1,592 sheep on offer.

Prices remain very buoyant with cattle trading at levels never previously encountered.

There were 609 store & breeding cattle with a particularly good selection of strong cattle on offer.  Steers reached £1,730, heifers £1,600 and feeding bulls £1,460.

In the breeding section stock bulls sold to £2,500 and cows with calves £1,320.

The calibre of cattle was such that it was possible to sell well matched animals in bunches of up to 10 attracting a distinct premium and speeding the progress of the sale.

One of the main drivers for the trade is the tremendous demand for finished cattle with this week’s sample selling very well indeed.

137 head sold to 342p/kg and a remarkable £2,420 per head.

The 50 steers averaged a very respectable 285.8p.

Turning to the OTM section Bakewell managed a decent entry of 87 and with cows scarce prices were very strong.  Top figures 284p/kg and £2,480/head.

The average emerged at an astonishing 206.5p.

Only 24 calves this week with bull calves topping at £365.

In the sheep section there were 206 Spring lambs selling to 409 pence and £181.30.  The SQQ average looked good at 376.1 pence.

Hoggs are still coming out in reasonable numbers with 913 on parade.

Top figures 336p/kg and £180.80 per head.  The SQQ average was a healthy 298.6 pence. And finally, the cull sheep, there were 473 on sale with ewes to £216 to average £122.32.

FORTHCOMING FIXTURES

Thursday 18^th May: Thursday Lunchtime Sheep Sale

87 Barren, OTM and Feeding Cows overall average 206.5p/kg or £1379

(Auctioneer Oliver Hiles)                    

The price keeps spiralling in the right direction with cows today at a record price once again.  Cows today are 25 pence dearer than the same week last years and 12 pence more than last week.  10 best cows topped 250p with a lovely 12-year-old Limousin from the Wildgoose family at the top of the charts at 284p (£2027) closely followed by another pure Limmy from Mrs Heath at 283p (£2303).  49 cows today topped £2/kg (56% of the entry) including a number of dairy cattle.

I fully accept that cows are dear everywhere with some National firms offering a big ‘bid price’ but look at the results below of what we can achieve in an open and honest auction with a full line up of buyers who want to bid for your cattle.

Results:

Gross Prices:

35 Black & White and ex dairy cows at 188.1p

Very dear again, up a fair bit on the week.

Best fed Friesians 200-222p

Big Holsteins 185-200p

Leaner Holsteins 178-185p

Plainer sorts only a few under 170p

The best today:

3 OTM Bulls

5 OTM Steers

137 FINISHED CATTLE – overall average 279.1p/kg

(Auctioneer Oliver Hiles)

A super show of cattle after the double Bank Holiday with a lot of weight about today and a super trade for all.

31 Young Bulls ave 267.5p/kg

Quality and weight on show with the top 3 over £3/kilo and seven over £2000.  Top book today was a lovely pure Limmy at 322p (£2112) who had another at 301p (£2070).  The Edge family had 310p (£2325) for their best Lim with dairy bulls today at 229p.

Results:

Gross Prices:

50 Steers ave 285.8p/kg

A tremendous show of quality big steers on offer today and what a price they were.  19 topped 300p/kg with 18 grossing over £2000.  Messrs Mann had 342p for a posh Limmy followed closely by PJB at 340p (£2203) and 334p (£2084).  Weight and quality sold to £2420 (308p) for Roger Tomlinson and £2322 (308p) for Messrs Hazledine.

Results:

Gross Prices:

56 Heifers ave 279.1p/kg

Not just the quality in the heifers as there was today in the steers but still some super prices.  15 heifers sold over 300p with Keith Harrop at the top of the list selling his heifers to 324p that sold to Wayne on behalf of Messrs Meakin Bros, Butchers in Leek.

Results:

Gross Prices:

STORE & BREEDING CATTLE – (Auctioneer Alastair Sneddon)

Another bumper crop with the section operating at capacity with 609 head on offer.

The sale commenced with a selection of Breeding Stock which included:

46 Feeding Bulls

Sample prices as follows:

311 Steers ave £1,028

A wonderful show of cattle with some great bunches of well matched animals attracting very fierce competition resulting in superb prices.

All types in strong demand from the best continental types the Angus and Hereford and trade also very good indeed for Black & White.

Sample Results:

221 Heifers ave £976

Plenty of interest with a full line up of buyers from near and far.

Very strong prices as the following examples clearly demonstrate.

Sample Results:

CALVES (Auctioneer Ivor Lowe)

A reduced entry today but all types keenly sought after and many more could have been sold to advantage.

Best continental bulls saw B Blue to £365 and Limousin to £335 and the natives equally ass dear with Hereford to £258.

Very few Heifers about but plenty of interest with the B/W bull calves to a top of £88.

Bulls

B Blue                 £365     GJ Tideswell, Marchington

B Blue                 £345     Pidcock & Matkin, Teversal

Hfd                       £258     GJ Tideswell, Marchington

Angus                 £170     KW Twemlow, Swinscoe

Fries                    £88        J & L MacPherson, Scott Hill

1119 Lambs & 467 Ewes & Rams (Auctioneer Peter Oven)

A very good entry of 1586 sheep included 206 new season lambs.  Demand for the best butchers Spring lambs very brisk to peak at 409p/kg with big butchers lambs to 370p/kg with a top gross of £181.30/head.

Leading Prices: –

Averages:

In the old season lambs a total of 913 of mixed quality but all types still an outstanding trade.  Best butchers types to 336p/kg with heavyweight butchers lambs to 320p/kg and overweight types to 299p/kg to gross £180.80/head.

Leading Prices: –

Averages:

Cull Sheep

A good seasonal entry and the best a strong shot, but an odd pen of lean Mules just a little steadier than the last 2 weeks.  Nevertheless, a good do and the market average at nearly £123 for everything looks spot on.

Top call £216 for strong Texels from the Hadfield family at Chamber Farm with Bernard Archer and Jackie Trueman both at £209 for Big Texels.

The top 8 pens averaged £200.37.  Best Mules regularly £112-£128.  The rams good to sell with Texels £190 tops and others at £180 and £158.

Ewes to £216                Ave £122.32                 

Rams to £190               Ave £158.80