Livestock & Dairy: Bakewell Market

We have had floods then ice and now gales to make life more difficult but valiant Bakewell vendors managed to assemble 570 cattle and 1,282 sheep to make a decent sale.

Buyers were out in force and all sections reported an exceptional level of prices.

The store cattle section attracted 337 head with several large consignments of top-quality cattle.

Trade was outstanding with steers to £1,870 to average a remarkable £1,128 for all comers, heifers peaked at £1,800 to average £946 with feeding bulls to £1,480.

There is no doubt that many more cattle could have been sold without denting the demand.

If you have cattle in test, give Alastair Sneddon a call on 07973 982441, Bakewell buyers would like the opportunity to bid for your stock.  It is certainly impossible to value them without the use of a gavel.

Finished cattle numbers were down a shade at 93 as a result of the 6 day stand still for those vendors who purchased cattle at last Friday’s HPLS sale.

There was a wonderful trade with top figures of 346p and £2,347 per head.

The average for the 46 heifers was a healthy 293p and £1,723 per head.

OTM cattle in short supply with only 89 on offer this week.

Top figures 224p and £2,055 per head.  The average looked good at 174 pence and a remarkable £1,210 per head.

Bakewell calf numbers holding up at 51 with bulls to £260 and heifers £282.

Over in the sheep department numbers were down and prices were up.

There were 955 hoggs with top figures of 332p and £175.80.

The SQQ average was 290.1 pence.

A total of 322 cull sheep saw ewes to £218 to average £113.87.

FORTHCOMING FIXTURES

Thursday 25^th January: Thursday Lunchtime Sheep Sale

89 Barren, OTM and Feeding Cows overall average 174.1p/kg or £1210

(Auctioneer Oliver Hiles)     

Less on offer but trade substantially dearer again, up another 5 pence with all cattle averaging over £1200/head certainly not a vintage show of cows with less best on offer.  A B Blue clean heifer topped the sale at 224p (£1254) with best cow at 222p (£1531) for a pure Limmy from Messrs Heath, Hazlewood.  Not as many young cows today either for feeding.  Whilst cows are going up, the only way to market them is on their legs and to achieve the maximum value you should be sending them to Bakewell to a big ring of buyers who want to purchase your cows.  Look at today’s best prices.

Results:

Gross Prices:

48 Black & White and ex dairy cows ave 167.7p/kg

A good bit dearer.

OTM clean heifers 187-209p

Best fed cows 180-192p

Big Holsteins 170-180p

Parlour cows 150-165p

Only the plainest under 135p

The best today:

2 OTM Steers

Both excellent sorts

93 FINISHED CATTLE ave 273.3p/kg

(Auctioneer Oliver Hiles)

Less on offer after Friday’s suckler sale with a number of producers tied up with the 6-day rule.  The overall average was almost identical to last week with the cattle very dear indeed and some saying the best yet.

19 Young Bulls ave 248.9p/kg

A smaller show as expected with no best suckler bred bulls on offer.  David Mason won the race with a Blue x dairy bull at 278p and Tom Mills’ Longhorn at 275p.  Just one over £2000 today and that being a Charolais from Arthur Prue, Woolley Moor.  3 B/W’s to £220p or £1689.

Results:

Gross Prices:

28 Steers ave 258.7p/kg

Very strong money today, but almost an absence of best quality.  Joe Gibbs had the best Limmy at 321p with Harold & Brian Ponsonby next at 290p with a heavyweight (£2180) and John Kunica with an Angus next in line at 288p.  8 dairy Herefords sold to 241p with a couple of B&W’s to 236p.

Results:

Gross Prices:

46 Heifers ave 293.6p/kg 

Wow, a serious price for the heifers and some marvellous top prices.  Michael Wynne had the top call with a northern bred Limmy at 346p closely followed by a Mark Sweetmore home bred Blonde at 342p (£2072).  20 best over 300p with the top 11 over £2000.  8 Natives today had Herefords to 282p & Angus to 270p.

Results:

Gross Prices:

STORE & BREEDING CATTLE – (Auctioneer Alastair Sneddon)

A decent entry of 337 head attracted a full line up of buyers and generated the strongest trade we have seen for a considerable time.

All this was helped by some outstanding runs of cattle with level lots of up to 9 in a bunch being hard fought over by finishers seeking to re-stock their fattening pens.

The sale started with 16 Feeding Bulls which achieved:

182 Steers ave £1,128

Some of the best cattle that we have seen on a Monday for some time sold at astonishing prices with results that speak for themselves.

Sample Results:

139 Heifers ave £946

Quite a few young cattle to compliment the stronger stores, but something for everyone and a tremendous trade for all comers.

Sample Results:

48 CALVES (Auctioneer Meg Elliott)

More needed to fill demand!

A very mixed quality forward on Monday saw the best, a Limousin heifer from the Palfreyman Family of Flagg reach £282.

Blue heifers reached £250 from WJ Adams & Son, Flagg.

Blue bulls topped at £260 from Messrs Farrington of Abbots Bromley.

More numbers are needed to satisfy the growing demand, contact Meg Elliott on 07967 007049.

957 Lambs, 322 Ewes & Rams & 3 Goats (Auctioneer Peter Oven)

A good entry of 1282 sheep included 957 lambs, with deadweight prices on the rise.  Demand very brisk right from the start with best Beltex to 332p/kg with the heavy weights to 318p/kg and overweights to 310p/kg, top gross of over £175/head.  Overall average 290.14p/kg.

Leading Prices: –

Averages:

Just 2 Dorset bred new season lambs sold to 310p/kg or £124.92/head.

322 Cull Sheep

Trade yet again strong and the entry even more varied than last week.  All categories very well bid for and more could have been sold to vendors’ advantage.

Top price for Hayden Fletcher at Peak Forest at £218 with others from the same village at £188 for Harry Young.  Sudbury vendor Peter Jeffery topped at £198 with Ken Elliott at £173 all for Texels.

Generally, the Mules slightly dearer than last week with two best over £100.  Feeding men out to buy the plainer types with best horned meated ewes and Gritstones over £70 to a top of £80.

In the rams a very diverse set of goods top price for a Texel from the Lowe family at Hulme End.  Good meated types regularly £120 and above with better shapes £150 and greater.

Overall average £114.22