FARMING

By Neale McQuistin

C&D Auctions held its opening sale of primestock for 2021 at Dumfries yesterday.

There were 52 cattle sold with OTM cattle meeting sharper demand on the week. Top prices per head were £1,245 for a Simmental, while dairy types peaked at £896 for a Holstein. Top prices per kilo were 150p for a Limousin and 118p for a Holstein.

Prime cattle sold to 242p/kg for a Limousin cross heifer.

The trade for prime hoggets (760) continues to improve with best types scarce. Top prices were 300p/kg for midweight hoggets and £116 for heavyweights. The 283 hoggets weighing 39kg-45kg averaged 252p/kg. The 278 cast sheep were also sharper on the week with heavy ewes selling to £150 for Texels, while hill ewes peaked at £71 for Blackfaces.

Messrs Craig Wilson sold 94 prime and cast cattle at its weekly sale at Ayr on Tuesday when prime cattle were easily cashed once again.

Nine prime heifers sold to a top of 256p/kg or £1,472 for a Limousin to average 236p, while one bullock sold to 242p or £1,415.

In the rough ring all classes were also dearer. Two bulls sold to £1,560 or 139p for a Limousin. Twenty-seven beef cows peaked at £1300 for a Limousin and for a Charolais or at 163p for a Limousin.

Fifty-four dairy cattle sold to £1,090 or 151p/kg for a Friesian heifer.

Caledonian Marts sold 1,569 prime hoggs and cast sheep at their weekly sale at Stirling on Tuesday. All classes of hoggs met a similar trade to last week with 39-45kg averaging 241p/kg. The overall sale average for 1,117 sold was 235p (-1p).

Top prices on the day were £123 for a 52kg Beltex cross hogget and 300p/kg for a 39kg Beltex.

The majority of the 452 cast sheep (61%) were hill or horned ewes and all classes would be dearer on the week. Heavy ewes averaged £110 selling to £170 for a pair of Beltex crosses.

Export Ewes averaged £68 selling to £91 for Cheviots.

C&D Auction Marts sold 3,072 head at its annual sale of store hoggs, cast ewes and rams at Longtown on Tuesday.

Store hoggs were a quality show and trade was described as being out of this world with lowland hoggs averaging £96.51 per head.

Top price was £200 for a Beltex hogg donated to Cancer Research UK, given by annual vendor Robbie Muir from Tow Law whose run of 418 hoggs averaged £96.14.

Hill lambs averaged £62 overall with a top price of £95 being achieved for Blackfaces. Ewes sold to a top of £129 for Texels, while hill ewes peaked at £85 for Cheviots and Blackfaces to £56.