Farm sale gets round standstill
Farm sale gets round standstill
EARLY season ram buyers created a solid trade at Charles and Valerie Marwoods sale of Charollais rams at their farm near York last weekend.
Their Foulrice flock, which maintains a high profile on performance recording and genotyping, found buyers for 123 rams to level at £273.
The 20-day standstill advantages of buying ex-farm clearly appealed and commercial buyers mopped up the core of the sale. But pedigree breeders were in contention for the top end and twice took bidding to 1600gns for shearlings.
First at this figure was a high lean index son of Westonvale Jubilee, a ram that has been a great success at Foulrice. It was a class 1 scrapie-genotyped ram and joins Michael Halls newly established flock at Skipton, North Yorks.
Another Class 1 scrapie-genotyped Jubilee son, which had taken an interbreed trophy at the Great Yorkshire Show last month, also realised 1600gns. It is off to the Promona flock owned by Orkney breeder Jim Slater.
Best of the ram lamb prices also came for a Jubilee son when 1200gns was paid by Edward Mackley and Stephen Pratt buying for their Mountsted flock near Scarborough.
Averages: 86 shearling rams £339, 29 ram lambs £257, and eight two-shear rams £253 (Lawrie & Symington). *