United Kingdom-Cattle markets.
Kington Market
1:30pm Monday 2nd March 2009
McCartneys report a better entry of 1,803 sheep with a good entry of 1,400 quality hoggets selling to a good trade.
All hoggets were in good demand by the six buyers. Well-bred and meated hoggets between 38 & 44kg would be at market premiums and hoggets in all weight ranges would be in good demand. All hoggets forward averaged 168ppk with a top of 179ppk. Hoggets sold to a top of £89.50 per head. The buyers are now insisting that all hoggets are belly shorn.
Some 29kg hoggets from M W Mathews made £45, 36kg hoggets from A Giordano made £60, 39kg hoggets from K Hodnett & Co made £67, 40kg hoggets from E M Jones made £69, 41kg lambs from K J Lloyd & Co made £70, 42kg lambs from T J Pritchard made £72.50, 45kg lambs from T Joseph made £78, 46kg hoggets from J Bufton & Sons made £78, 51kg lambs from T Joseph made £86, 53kg hoggets from M W Mathews made £89.50. There was a good entry of 400 cull ewes selling to an excellent trade. Well meated and strong ewes were selling to market premiums. The ewes sold to a top of £88.50 and to average £56.40 per ewe, Tups sold to £67.50 and to average £49.50. Cull ewes included a proportion of thinner mule ewes and hill ewes. The market has buyers for in excess of 500 ewes per week and many more cull ewes are required to meet demand. OTM sales are undertaken at Kington Market every Thursday at 12.30pm. The market has a number of buyers for over 30-month cattle on a weekly basis. Pre-booking is essential.
McCartneys at Kington offer an on-farm livestock grading and marketing advice service on a no charge basis.
Hereford Market
1:30pm Monday 2nd March 2009
PRIME HOGGETTS - (1,173): An improved trade on the early part of the week with best demand for well meated 38 to 43-kilo hoggs with prices on these to192.1p/kg and several better pens from 177 to 190p/kg. All weights were competitively sold with the biggest hoggs selling to £83 for 56kg and many others from £80 to £82. Total clearance affected. Overall average 169.2p/kg. Top price/head £83 for lambs grading 56kg.
STORE HOGGETTS - (1,683): The largest entry of 2009 saw 1,683 store hoggetts sell to an excellent trade with competitive trades on all sizes. The more forward sorts sold from £61 to £73.80. Bunches of good farming hoggs sold to good interest with many from £53 to £64.80. Longer keeping sorts all sold very well from £40 to £52 with only the lead or very small from £25 to £35. A total clearance affected. Overall average £53.84.
EWES WITH LAMBS - (105): The larger entry of 105 ewes with their 169 lambs at food sold to keen interest. With more customers in attendance, they sold to £156 for a bunch of ten Suffolk cross two and three-year-olds with their 16 smart Texel cross lambs. Other better pens with stronger lambs ranged from £112 to £153 for the first pen of seven Suffolk cross ewes with their 14 Charollais cross lambs. Ewes with strong singles sold to £123. Vendors well advised to show their ewes with lambs at three weeks or older. Ewes with smaller singles or with two or three lambs over sold from £91 to £113. A total clearance effected.
IN-LAMB EWES - (157): The entry of 157 in-lamb ewes were mostly a consignment of yearling north country mules. All scanned in lamb to Beltex cross Texel ram, lambing from March 15, they ranged from £99 to £103. Other plain Suffolk ewes scanned in-lamb sold at £51 and £48.
CULL EWES - (887): An entry of generally smaller ewes bringing the average down by £5 per head but excellent demand for all sorts. Good strong ewes to £94.50, £89.50, £84.50. Speckles to £51.50. Welsh ewes to £48.50. Overall average - £50.94, Suffolks to £94.50, £89, £80.50, continentals to £84, £82.50, north country mules to £76, Welsh mules to £72.20, Welsh to £48.50, cull rams to £84.50, £84.
PIGS - (204): Once again, more than 200 pigs on offer, which were all sold. The trade was fast for good quality stores and porkers but second quality were harder to sell. In order to help penning the pigs, it would be helpful if vendors could arrive at the market as early as possible. Next sale of pigs is on Wednesday, March 4, at 10am. Weaners (white) from £27-£36.50, weaners (coloured) from £10-£30, stores (white) from £28-£50, stores (coloured) from £18-£37, porkers (white) from £60-£90, porkers (coloured) to £60, cutters (white) from £69-£104, cutters (coloured) from £59-£65, fat sows from £90-£200, boars from £112-£170, small in-pig gilts from £70-£94. All pigs must be permanently ear-tagged or slap marked. Please note that all pigs sold through this market require a food chain information form to accompany them. This form can be obtained from our office or your local Animal Health Office.
Ludlow Market
1:30pm Monday 2nd March 2009
Finished Cattle - 401 Another very good level of demand right the way through with increased buying support being present this week. Prices back up again and more edge to everything. Prices were as follows: MEDIUM STEERS: Best quality to 169.5p, av. 165.1p, Standard quality to 159.0p, av. 152.1p; Also rans to 144.0p; Overall average 155.9p.
HEAVY STEERS: Best quality to 185.0p, av. 168.9p; Standard quality to 162.0p, av. 154.3p; Also rans to 144.0p; Overall average 160.3p.
MEDIUM HEIFERS: Best quality to 203.0p, av. 178.4p; Standard quality to 164.5p, av. 157.8p; Also rans to 147.5p; Overall average 160.2p.
HEAVY HEIFERS: Best quality to 212.5p, av. 176.6p; Standard quality to 164.5p, av. 156.9p; Also rans to 149.5p; Overall average 157.4p.
LIGHT BULLS: To 175.4p, average 124.5p. MEDIUM BULLS: To 173.0p, average 150.9p. HEAVY BULLS: To 184.0p, average 160.5p. More bulls needed. Plenty of plain Friesian bulls this week in the mid 120.0p bracket. Best Friesians way above 150.0p.
Barren Cows - 60 An excellent trade with everybody back buying cattle. Perhaps we can get back to normality now. Prices were as follows: Grade 1 Cows to 143.5p, av. 123.8p Grade 2 Cows to 117.5p, av. 112.8p Grade 3 Cows to 108.5p, av. 106.2p Grade 4 Cows to 104.5p, av. 96.0p Old Bulls to 114.5p, av. 109.1p Heifers to 126.5p, av. 119.9p Overall average 112.6p/kg.
Finished Sheep - 3,523 A good firm level of demand on all of the hoggets with hoggets up to 211.5p. Prices back a bit on the week but still well in line with the national trend and prices at the end of last week. Prices were as follows: Standard Hoggets to 170.0p, av. 161.3p Medium Hoggets to 198.0p, av. 163.1p Heavy Hoggets to 211.5p, av. 161.9p Overweight Hoggets to 166.0p, av. 157.3p.
Export quality hoggets sold up to 211.5p per kilo and averaged 167.9p per kilo and home trade hoggets sold up to 162.5p per kilo and averaged 159.9p per kilo.
There was another excellent ewe trade with ewes up to £100.00 and an overall average of £53.78, killing rams to £67.50, average £54.41.
