As we start the New Year, Mark Richardson, Regional Sales Manager (Kirkby Stephen) & Auctioneer for Harrison & Hetherington, looks back on 2022 which he describes as a “successful year at Kirkby Stephen Auction Mart, even in the light of all the adversity in today’s climate, coupled with extreme summer droughts and spiraling import costs, both which impacted hugely on the agricultural sector.”
“True to form, a general theme is that quality has mattered in all sectors of livestock sold, and buyers are prepared to travel and pay the premiums for quality stock. In March’s Kirkby Classic Show and Sale of store cattle, we saw a top price of £5200 being achieved for a nine month old Limousin heifer. With predominantly 8-12 month old cattle, the overall sale average of £1246.02, was up £120 on the year.
Our May Day Show and Sale topped at £3000 for an 11 month old British Blue heifer, and the 1064 forward steers sold to average £1217.66 and heifers £1141.96.
The extreme drought conditions, particularly in the south and east of the country were a concern for the looming sheep breeding sales at the start of the season, with many unsure if they could handle any sheep at all. However, with support from local farmers who provided assistance, most buyers travelled north as usual, the sale topped at £600 and an overall sale average of £119.29, down slightly on the year it was a much better outcome than expected.
With a large crowd of buyers and strong demand, our sale of Continental Cross ewes and rams reached extreme levels.
As a result of the drought and high feed costs Prime lamb numbers country wide where slow at coming forward which resulted in a strong prime lamb trade in the first half of the season. At the beginning of the second half of the season numbers regained last years levels but with trade remaining fairly static compared to this period last year.
This factor, coupled with inflated feed costs resulted in some producers selling lambs in the store ring, with plenty of buyers present at all sales, consistently strong trades were achieved.
In spite of this, in the latter part of the year we continued to grow prime sheep numbers at our Tuesday afternoon sales, selling between 3000 and 4000 on a weekly basis from noted local breeders and increasing numbers of sellers travelling long distances, all keen to take advantage of this weekly competitive ringside of twelve plus buyers and the premiums achieved. At these sales all classes of prime lambs and cash ewes are well catered for with top quality lambs regularly achieving £150-£170 and 350-400p/kg on a weekly basis.
One of the highlights of the year at Kirkby Stephen is the annual Swaledale Sheep Breeders Association three-day ram sale, which saw a fantastic overall two day average of £2273.25 for 610 rams. The opening day sale topped at £18000 for a ram lamb, and £5200 for an aged ram, the following day topped at £30,000 and £45,000 for shearling rams.
With ever declining suckler cow numbers, store cattle trade has continued to rise throughout the year. This was proven at the annual Luke Fair sale, where the steer average of £1305, was £110.32 up on the year. 104 cattle sold between £1400-£2015 and a top price of £2015 was achieved for an 18 month old British Blue cross steer
Following on from this, November’s suckled calf sale achieved some of the strongest prices ever witnessed, and topped £4500 for 8 month old Limousin heifer, still holding on to the sale theme of the better quality calves achieving. With 50 more calves than last year going under the hammer an overall sale average of £1051.29 was achieved and 115 calves sold between £1200-£4500. One local consignment of 51 calves sold to average £1541.27.
Closing the cattle sales calendar was November’s noted Beef Breeding Cattle Sale which attracted both buyers and sellers from across the UK. With an entry of 462, this sale topped at £4000 for a British Blue cow with calf at foot and a British Blue cross in-calf heifer at £3300. The 115 in-calf heifers sold to an average £2402.27 up £426.61 on the year, and one leading consignment of 28 in-calf heifers averaging £2739.29.
Once again, we would like to thank those who consign and purchase for supporting us throughout the year and turning out such quality stock, which we are pleased to offer for sale on their behalf and attracting buyers from near and far. Such tremendous quality of sheep and cattle really is testament to the stockmanship and standards of production of those farmers who sell through Kirkby Stephen.
It is only a result of this stockmanship that we have the demand from buyers and the premiums can be achieved.
Of course, thanks and appreciation must also go to all our staff for their dedication and hard work in providing a first-class level of customer service and making each sale run smoothly and successfully.