CALEDONIAN Marts sold 1,413 prime hoggets and cast sheep at Stirling on Tuesday.

Despite the challenging weather and road conditions the sheep forward met the best trade this season with 1,101 hoggets selling to a top of £122 for a 58kg Beltex and to 279p/kg for a 43kg Beltex from the same consigner. The overall sale averaged 222p which was a rise of 17p/kg on the week.

In the cast sheep section the 337 head were topped at £150 for a Texel with heavy ewes averaging £99.67. Export Ewes averaged £66.35 selling to £84 for a Blackface.

C&D Auction Marts sold 2,826 store hoggs and feeding ewes at Longtown on Tuesday.

The overall average was £70.80 with Beltex and Texel hoggets selling at a premium. A feature of the sale was an annual consignment of 150 Blackface hoggs that peaked at £82 to average £74.44.

Top price was £101 for Texels with Beltex up to £99. Greyfaces sold to £89 and Suffolks topped at £87.

Feeding ewes peaked at £104 for Texels, while Suffolks sold to £91. A small show of 300 breeding sheep sold to a top of £255 for three pure Texel gimmers with the same home selling others to £250 and £210. Mule shearlings scanned for twins sold for £160 and Suffolk cross 2-3 crop ewes made up to £151.

Messrs Craig Wilson sold 159 prime and cast cattle at their weekly sale at Ayr on Tuesday. Prime cattle met a similar trade to last week with 12 heifers averaging 215p/kg or £1162.80. Top price of the day was 229p for a Limousin heifer or £1288 for a Charolais.

In the rough ring 57 beef cows sold to £1,390 or 179p for a Limousin to average 129p, while 64 dairy cows sold to £920 and 118p for Friesians to average 99p.

Nine cast bulls were topped at £1,200 or 128p for an Aberdeen Angus to average 108p.

Seven clean cattle peaked at £1,000 or 172p for a Belgian Blue to average 140p.

Eight dairy cattle sold to a top of £1,950 for a Holstein Friesian second-calver.

The firm also sold 1,306 prime and cast sheep at Newton Stewart yesterday.

All classes of prime and cast sheep would see a significant rise on the week. 912 Hoggs sold to average 213p/kg. Top price of £110 was achieved on three occasions by the same consigner. Top price per kilo was for a pen of Beltex selling at 229p. Blackface prime hoggets averaged 218p or £92.67 for 309 sold. Top price per head was £104 and 222p per kilo. Topping the Ewes was a pen of Texels selling at £148. Mules ewes peaked at £91.50 and Blackfaces topped at £76.