LOCAL breeder Kevin Huck, of Knowle Bank Farm, Bordley, put in two outstanding performances at Skipton Auction Mart in the Swaledale rams and gimmer lambs highlights.

The October gimmer lamb highlight produced an overall selling average for the 4,009-strong entry of £65.90 per head, a tidy increase on the previous year’s £59.39. (Tues, Oct 8)

The popular annual fixture again featured four standalone breed shows for pens of ten Swaledale, North of England Mule, Dales Mule and Masham lambs.

The Swaledale show class fell to Kevin Huck, of Knowle Bank Farm, Bordley, fresh from standing champion and claiming £2,200 top price at the previous evening’s annual Swaledales rams showcase.

In fact, two in the pen were by his 2019 aged ram victor. Recipients of the Craven Cattle Marts Trophy, they went on to sell for top call in both class and sale by some considerable margin when knocked down for £145 per head to Mycock & Bright in Buxton.

The second prize Swaledale pen also came from Bordley, this time from father and daughter, John and Rose Tennant, of Low Bucker House Farm, section winners the previous three years. Their lambs sold for £120 each, the third prize pen from Embsay’s John and Claire Mason making £95, with all the prize winners selling at higher prices than the previous year.

Although lambs were not quite as strong on the year, they got away well, with plenty of buyers keen to further improve their purchases. The 860 head on offer sold to an overall average of £50.73, a slight rise of 32p per head on 2018.

The Throup family – Joe and Nancy, and their son George – from Berwick Intake Farm, Draughton, who won the Mules show class last year, were again to the fore with the second prize pen, sold for £98, £2 per head more than the third prize pen for Robert and Ellie Crisp in Calton.

North of England Mule gimmers were shown in good fettle and of a better quality this year for what was NEMSA’s third annual turnout of 2019 at the North Yorkshire venue, this being reflected by an overall breed average for the 2,130 lambs on parade of £71.14 per head, a solid increase of just over £12 on last year.

Smarter lambs were £75 to £80-plus, trading to a section high of £118 from long-standing NEMSA members, the Kitching family at Grisedale Farm, Threshfield, their pen claimed by Fox Farms in Withgill, Clitheroe. EW&JR Parkinson, of Dunsop Bridge, also hit three figures with a £105 pen, as did Jeff Throup, of Silsden Moor, at £100.

The best end of the runners sold in the late £60s/early £70s, straight runners in the £60s and just a few of the smaller end in the late £50s. Non-NEMSA members’ lambs, 530 in total, sold to a top of £77 for a pen from W Harrison & Son, of Weston, Otley, averaging £68.78, a rise of £10.62 on 2018

There were back-to-back wins in both the Dales Mule and Masham show classes, the former by father and son, Joe and Trevor Stoney, from Bewerley, Pateley Bridge, with home-bred lambs again by a tup from fellow Nidderdale breeder, Bernard Simpson.

Dales Mules, 297 in total, reflected the improved trade for breeding sheep this year, with smart lambs selling at £75-£80, though more small lambs forward held back the average at £65.07, a small increase of 13p per head on the year.

The Masham gimmers show class, again sponsored by Masham Sheep Breeders’ Association, was won for the second consecutive year by Wharfedale’s Brian ‘Albert’ Ashby, from Bratt Farm Norwood, Otley. He retained the Kemp Spokes Trophy, selling his class victors for £95 top price to JA&F Elliott, of Ferrensby, Knaresborough.

The second prize pen from Silsden Moor’s Allan and Susan Throup sold for £80, the third prize winners from DNewbould, of Dallowgill, at £74.

At the rams sale, Mr Huck consigned the first prize aged ram for the third year in succession, thought to be the first time such a high profile hat-trick has been achieved at the breed highlight, before seeing his 3 shear progress to become overall show champion,

Mr Huck is now a four-times winner of the Stephen HK Butcher Trophy for the best aged ram, his latest frontrunner being by a Seal Houses tup bred by Swaledale Sheep Breeders Association stalwart Michael Allinson, of Arkengarthdale.

Out of a ewe by a Joe Natrass tup, Mr Huck’s latest title winner, also recipient of the M&J Spensley Trophy, was the subject of keen bidding before falling locally for £2,200 top price to the Hopkinson family, of Cowling.

The same vendor also sent out the second prize shearling ram, by a Raymond Calvert Hoggarths ram, which again sold away nicely at £1,600 to JB&LJ Shirt, of Edale in the Derbyshire Peak District.

Making the same money was the second prize aged ram and reserve champion from the Stockdale flock of 2018 title winners, the Cowperthwaite family - Robert and Lindsey, and their son Sam – who farm between Settle and Malham. Acquired from breeder Robert Weir’s Howe Green flock and by a Paul Chester ram, out of a Thornborrow-sired ewe, the overall runner-up also sold locally to J&V Blakey, of Greenhow.

Claiming £1,350 was the best confirmation sheep, a shearling ram presented by the four-strong ‘BBWC’ syndicate – the first letters of the surnames of the joint owners - Swaledale Sheep Breeders Association district secretary Wilf Buckle, Alan Birbeck and Bob Wearmouth, all from the Kirkby Stephen area, and Malham Moor’s Bill Cowperthwaite.

Purchased from Andrew Haggas, of Grove Farm, Otterburn, when standing champion at the Skipton breed showcase two years ago, the grandson of a 4,800gns tup bred in Hawes by Martin Sunter, out of Tennant Gill ewe, found a new home in Derbyshire with J&R Driver, of Chisworth, Glossop.

The first prize shearling ram from John and Jean Bradley’s Penyghent flock in Giggleswick, runners-up in the same show class last year, made £700, with the third prize winner from Saddle End Farms in Chipping making £500. Both fell to A Newbould & son, of Dallowgill.

A total of seven rams achieved four-figure selling prices, including a trio from local breeders. WB Woodsworth, of Bolton Abbey, made £1,200 with an aged ram, Bordley’s Roy Nelson achieving £1,100 with another, while a shearling ram from John and Claire Mason in Embsay sold at £1,100, a second making £500.

Mr Nelson saw further shearlings sell at £900 and £550, while the Walker family, from Dunsop Bridge, sold aged rams at £700 and £650 twice

The annual highlight, judged by Chapel-le-Dale father and son, Jeff and Francis Pickles, attracted an entry of 60 registered Swaledale rams and achieved a good clearance rate, with buyers keen to secure strong quality rams of all ages.

Aged rams averaged £504.55, well up on the previous year’s £307, and shearling rams £372.96, also a significant increase of the 2018 average of £284.