Darlington Farmers Auction Mart held their weekly sale of prime stock on Thursday 28th April 2022. Forward were 230 Cattle, 1772 Sheep and 26 Pigs.
48 Prime Bulls sold to 300ppk or £2364
44 Prime Steers sold to 295ppk or £2269
138 Prime Heifers sold to 320ppk or £1971
41 New Season Lambs sold to 359ppk or £144
1065 Prime Hoggs sold to 333ppk or £154.50
666 Cast Ewes & Rams sold to £321
26 Prime Pigs sold to 120ppk or £108
Prime Bulls (48) – Numbers scarce and quality very varied this week however another good bull trade (average 243ppk), plainer sorts and dairy bred bulls enjoyed the trade of the day. Enjoying the lions share of the top slots this week were the British Blonde breed as they enjoyed four of the top five prices per kilo and were also responsible for four of our six bulls beyond £2000. The star performer was indeed a Blonde as regular supporters F & J S Gargett, Barnard Castle turned out a 788kg bull which sold for 300 pence per kilo and £2364. The Friesian’s forward averaged an impressive 211ppk and £1294 with top prices of 236ppk from R Hall & Son, Brotton and £1534 from J K & C E Farming, Piercebridge. As per usual below are listed some of the shining lights of the week.
F & J S Gargett, Barnard Castle sold 3 Bulls to average 280ppk and £2248
P Weightman & Sons, Easington sold 2 Bulls to average 280ppk and £2111
L S Staley, Marwood sold 2 Bulls to average 273ppk and £2088
W I Suddes & Son, Cornsay sold 4 Bulls to average 270ppk and £1670
Continental Bulls – Top prices ppk 300 286 256 F&JS Gargett. 294 256 LS Staley. 284 276 P Weightman & Sons. 275×2 266 265 WI Suddes & Son. 274 253 248 JR Tiplady. 266 259 N White. 260 255×2 JK&CE Farming. 250×2 246×2 244 JM Greensit & Son Ltd. 250 247 236 235 JA&A Herbert. 248 J Richmond. 238 JC&P Tallentire.
Lead Grossing Continental Bulls ££2364 £2322 £2058 F&JS Gargett. £2254 £1967 P Weightman & Sons. £2090 £2086 LS Staley. £1893 £1830 £1730 JM Greensit & Son Ltd. £1884 £1830 £1693 JK&CE Farming. £1872 £1843 N White. £1757 £1710 £1664 £1548 WI Suddes & Son. £1733 £1577 J Richmond. £1707 £1649 £1590 JR Tiplady.
Friesian Bulls – Top prices ppk 236 191 189 R Hall & Son. 229 225 JK&CE Farming. 214 213 196 190 186 185 C&M Atkinson & Sons.
Lead Grossing Friesian Bulls £1534 31520 JK&CE Farming. £1416 £1134 £1118 R Hall & Son. £1239 £1189 £1094 £1040 £936 £926 C&M Atkinson & Sons.
Native Breed Bulls – Top prices ppk 230×2 FJ Hugill. 225 J Richmond. 160 RJ Graham.
Lead Grossing Native Breed Bulls £1596 £1566 FJ Hugill. £1577 J Richmond. £1465 RJ Graham.
Prime Clean Cattle (182) – A good show of numbers, quality and weight proved to be a superb trade as the thriving live ring once again left the current deadweight price list week barely even suitable for fish and chip wrappers. The whole market averaged a whopping £1686 with steers levelling at 266ppk and heifers 277ppk as 30 cattle reached at least 300ppk and 25 sold over £1900, the top 9 steers broke £2000 with a pair of belters the top side of £2200. A super string of heifers from J V & J A Hodgson, Summerhouse set the pace per kilo as they produced four of our top six and peaked at 320 pence with an excellent 590kg Limousin, carrying the bridesmaid’s bouquet today in second place was Gerard Quinn of J E Suddes & Son, Rowley with a 620kg Limousin at 318ppk. Thirteen super steers sold over 280 pence this week with some terrific feeding on display, top price of 295 pence went to a 612kg Limousin from D K Barker, Coatham Munderville with British Blondes from W J Scott Ltd proving predominant in the high-quality chasing pack. Top grossing steer went to Sedgefield’s A F Hall with a tremendous 788kg Limousin reaching a massive £2269, another near miss in the gross value race on this occasion came for J E Suddes & Son collecting the silver medal with a heavyweight Limousin at £2247. The battle for top gross valued heifer was indeed keenly fought, strong competition came from the aforementioned J V & J A Hodgson plus regular sellers B Walker, Dalton and J Layfield, Willington however after so many near misses it was in fact ‘The Mighty Quinn’ of J E Suddes & Son, Rowley Farm who finally and deservedly grabbed a top spot reaching £1971. Some of the super sale averages are listed below, a week which could easily have had a very, very long list indeed.
Heifers
B Walker, Dalton-on-Tees sold 3 to average 302ppk and £1738
Askwiths, Crook sold 3 to average 302ppk and £1699
K & J Heslop, Fishburn sold 5 to average 299ppk and £1693
W J & A S Bowes, Stainton sold 2 to average 295ppk and £1631
J E Suddes & Son, Cornsay Colliery sold 5 to average 294ppk and £1812
W J Scott Ltd, West Woodburn sold 6 to average 293ppk and £1757
R Hirst, Neasham sold 5 to average 293ppk and £1752
Steers
Askwiths, Crook sold 2 to average 285ppk and £1765
D K Barker, Coatham Munderville sold 4 to average 284ppk and £1904
A F Hall, Sedgefield sold 3 to average 284ppk and £2153
W J Scott Ltd, West Woodburn sold 5 to average 283ppk and £1983
J E Suddes & Son, Cornsay Colliery sold 2 to average 270ppk and £2156
Steers – Top prices ppk 295 284×2 278 DK Barker. 290×2 286 279 276 WJ Scott Ltd. 290 285 279 278 268 258 I Marshall & Sons. 289 288 275 AF Hall. 287 284 Askwiths. 286 WA Armstrong. 276 266 JE Suddes & Son. 275 M Robinson & Sons. 270 262 260 259 258×2 254×2 RA&BA Ridley & Son Ltd. 265 246 JR Anderson & Son. 260 WA Wardman Ltd. 249 RD Musgrave. 245 TN Hodgson & Sons. 241 RG Richardson.
Lead Grossing Steers £2269 £2161 £2029 AF Hall. £2247 £2064 JE Suddes & Son. £2093 WA Wardman Ltd. £2081 £2020 £1986×2 £1844 WJ Scott Ltd. £2002 £1967 £1895 £1888 £1873 £1868 £1844 £1783 RA&BA Ridley & Son Ltd. £1999 £1943 £1868 £1805 DK Barker. £1986 £1983 £1968 £1958 £1916 I Marshall & Sons. £1860 £1670 Askwiths. £1770 JR&B Anderson& Son. £1695 WA Armstrong. £1643 RG Richardson. £1622 M Robinson & Sons.
Heifers – Top prices ppk 320 315 314×2 313 310 307 301 300 298 297 JV&JA Hodgson. 318 299 295 JE Suddes & Son. 314 312 Askwiths. 313 303 299 295 WA Armstrong. 312 311 292 MF Hall. 312 307 299 293 K&J Heslop. 312 307 305 298 J Layfield. 309 305 296 B Walker. 308 304 294 R Hirst. 305 300 295 WJ Scott Ltd. 304 TW Clark & Son. 303 291 EW Grieves. 300 WJ&AS Bowes & Sons. 299 298 M Robinson & Sons. 290 D Robson & Sons.
Lead Grossing Heifers £1971 £1827 £1781 JE Suddes & Son. £1962 £1925 £1894 £1888 £1887 £1885 £1881 £1857 £1855 JV&JA Hodgson. £1944 B Walker. £1912 £1900 £1802 J Layfield. £1868 £1765 JR Tiplady. £1847 £1744 D Robson & Sons. £1809 £1808 £1781 £1773 £1767 WA Armstrong. £1799 £1790 £1774 R Hirst. £1795 £1790 £1766 WJ Scott Ltd. £1790 £1762 EW Grieves. £1786 Askwiths. £1786 RW&R Henry. £1747 TW Clark & Son. £1744 MF Hall.
Prime Lambs (41) – Slowly come the spring lambs now creeping in and demand for the better end is plentiful, the pick of this week’s lambs came from Steve Hugill of Wytherstone Farm, Skiplam with four smart 38kg Beltex lambs selling at 359ppk, the same good home led the gross values with a pair of 43kg reaching £144. A pleasing weighed straight sale average was achieved of 330ppk and £137.05.
New season lambs- top prices PPK: 359 358 338 335 334 325 Wytherstone Farm. 314 308 BR & R Routledge. 185 (Goat) MW Reed.
Lead grossing new season lambs £144 £142 £140 £137.50 £136.50 £129 Wytherstone Farm. £135 £132.50 BR & R Routledge.
Prime Hoggs (1065) – Dearer again, the handy weights are becoming easier to sell by the week and this week the heavyweights were certainly firmer, as always weighed absolutely straight this week’s sale averaged 261ppk with an SQQ of 278ppk. Two tremendous runs of sheep shared the top price per kilo at 333 pence, both vendors produced 45kg Beltex at £150 as a pair from T N Callender, Whinney Hill matched a trio from P J & M P Gilhespy, Ponteland; credit to the sharing nature of the prolific Callender boys who also shared the spoils last week whilst the Ponteland producer seems to be following Newcastle United and proving hard to beat in the latter stages of the season. Top gross value this week at £154.50 went to D L & D Lovegreen of Catterick as they showed a superb pair of heavy Texel hoggs which were bought by Castlebank Butchers. Mule hoggs this week topped at £123, Scotch Blackface £116.50 and the best of the Swaledale’s as high as £111.
Hoggs- top prices PPK: 333 325 319 318 306 285 284 278×2 PJ & MP Gilhespy. 333 325 323 321 297 288 279 278 TN Callender. 322 EA Martin & Son. 307 281 C & M Atkinson & Sons. 305 302 288 278 GE Raw. 302 IM Maughan. 296 282 279 K Tallentire. 296 HE Jewitt. 296 277 DL & D Lovegreen.
Lead grossing hoggs £154.50 £142 £136 DL & D Lovegreen. £150 £147 £140 £318 £285 £140 £138 £130 PJ & MP Gilhespy. £150 £148 £136 £131 £130 TN Callender. £148.50 £137 £134.50 £130 R & D Harland. £145 EA Martin & Son. £144 £140 £136 £133 £130 AC Simpson & Son. £144 HE Jewitt. £138 £134 £130 WA Wardman Ltd.
Cast Ewes & Rams (666) – Still the ewe trade is very good, considering that the shows now naturally contain many of those less successful lambers which have miraculously avoided a trip in Mr Warrens silver taxi an average of £110 is absolutely wonderful. Top of the tree this week were Will & Vannessa Burton of Ettersgill with a superb Texel ewe when she sold for £321, another half dozen sold over £200 with the heavier continental and Suffolk’s often £150 to £180. Best priced Mule ewes were £130 whilst the tup trade stays in top form with the 19 of them topping at £200 averaging £132.
Lead grossing cast sheep £321 £200 M & V Burton. £250 £186 £170 £150 £142 WB Mitchell & sons. £200 £150 £142 Emma Moorcock. £200 £158 £150 RA Patterson & son. £190 £170 RA & J Blyth. £180 £150 £144 W.K M.M Lamb. £170 £160 £148 P Tindale. £170 FW Walton. £170 £150 A & PA Jopling.
Prime Pigs (26) – Pigmageddon (the squeakuel) The likelihood of us having this many pigs is very slim, even less likely is the breaking news that the pigs are actually in demand, trade is getting better all the time. Halleluiah.
Prime pigs- top prices PPK: 108 106 90 J Mitchell & Son. 82 76 56 RW Raper & Sons.
Lead grossing prime pigs: £120 £120 £100. J Mitchell & Son. £100 £95 £90 RW Raper & Sons.
