The traditional opener to Skipton’s 2016 breeding sheep season attracted a full ringside of both regular local and new customers, some of whom had travelled quite a distance looking for quality sheep.

Pictured with the first prize pen of Mule gimmer shearlings at Skipton are, from left, exhibitors Anne and John Greenhalgh, judges Martin and Val Brown, and co-sponsor Claire Radley, second from right, NFU group secretary in Skipton.
photo: Adrian Legge Photography.

Continental sheep were in great demand, especially the good sorts, with Texels up £35.71 per head on average to stand at £155.44 across the board. Mule sheep were also better to sell on the year and a healthy average of £138.48 was recorded, up almost £15 on 2015.

The annual highlight featured three show classes for pens on ten, with the red rosette in the Mule section going to the Ribble Valley’s John and Beth Greenhalgh, and their daughter Anne, from Rugglesmere Farm, Bashall Eaves, Clitheroe.

It was the third time in recent years they had won the class at the opening fixture, receiving the Edgar Boothman Memorial Trophy, presented in the ring by his nephew Thomas Boothman, of Linton. Their latest victors sold for a section-topping £215 each to Leicestershire buyer Warwick Gill.

The Greenhalgh family – John is still going strong at the age of 82 – were represented with their entire 97-strong consignment of 2016 Mule gimmer shearlings, a good number of which were acquired as gimmer lambs at Skipton. They averaged £162.97 per head overall. The Greenhalghs say they will be back at Skipton in the near future to source more gimmer lambs.

Another Ribble Valley farming family, brothers Peter, Edward and Robert Fox, of Withgill, Clitheroe, who presented the first prize Mules last year, were again to the fore at the latest renewal when consigning the second and third prize pens, which sold at £172 and £190 per head respectively. They also had a third pen at £172.

Pure-bred Texels from Lambert and Joy Coverdale and their son, also Lambert, from Crimple Meadow Farm, Beckwithsaw, Harrogate, took first prize honours in the Continental show class, selling for £170 each to Mark Crabtree, of Kettlesing.

All were home-bred by a Wigglesworth Spellbound-sired tup from David Towell’s Moor Top flock at Upper Leys Farm, Glusburn Moor. Spellbound has produced multiple show champions and high-priced progeny for Mr Towell, among them many frontrunners at Skipton.

Mr Coverdale said:
“I never for one minute thought I would win first prize here with a commercial packet of sheep. We have won before with single animals, but to do so with a pen of ten is very satisfying. We have more to come.”

The Continental class also produced the day’s highest price of £240 per head for the second prize pen of Beltex-cross-Texel from Ruth Thorpe, of Balderstone, Sheffield. They sold locally to Harold Peel, of Embsay.

Standing third in class was Henry Atkinson, of Felliscliffe, Harrogate, with a Texel-cross-Beltex pen that made £200 each.

Norfolk breeders Henry Harvey & Son, of Waxham Hall, Waxham, were again well represented with their annual consignment of over 300 Texels and Mules, selling the former to a high of £202 per head.

Local vendors, brothers James, Tommy and William Hall, of Darnbrook Farm, Darnbrook, won the show class for Masham gimmer shearlings for the second year in succession, selling their charges for £140 per head to Cleveland’s William Wardman, along with a further Masham pen at £130.

The Halls first moved into Mashams last year when buying in 40 gimmer lambs at Skipton and are breeding from them for the first time this year. Swaledale are the family’s mainstay – they currently hold a 1,300-strong hill flock - from which they produce Mules, selling two gimmer shearling pens at Skipton for £220 and £200 per head. They will be producing others at the mart’s high profile annual NEMSA shows and sales in September.

The second prize Masham shearling pen from Tony Binns, of Clint, Harrogate, sold for £120, with a second pen from the same vendor making the same price.

Hartwith’s Nick Dalby was responsible for the top price £160 per head Beltex gimmer shearling pen, with the exors of Miss B Woodcock, of Slaidburn, heading the Cheviot prices at £150 and Draughton’s John Turner the Suffolks at £142.

Other breed averages were: Beltex £142.50 (+£4.50), Suffolk £138.11 (£+24.11), Cheviot £137.94 (+£31.94) and Masham £126.47 (£+1.99).

Show judges were husband and wife, Martin and Val Brown, from Leyburn, and co-sponsors JACS Trade & DIY Warehouse in Skipton, the Skipton branch of the NFU, Top Tags and the British Wool Marketing Board.

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