Camera at the Mart attended the first sale of breeding hoggets and ewes at Limavady last week.

The seasonal sales are run every year at the Aghanaloo site from August through to October and conducted by local auctioneer Alexander (Alec) Gourley.

There was a solid entry of good-quality hoggets on the day, with a small entry of breeding ewes forwarded.

Numbers are expected to increase in the coming weeks as breeding sales move into top gear.

Buying demand is also expected to increase as more farmers complete silage harvesting and drafting of cull animals.

Commenting on the sale, auctioneer Alec Gourley said that numbers coming under the hammer were on par with previous years.

He added that with an abundance of grass on farms, farmers are holding hoggets to increase body condition prior to sale, thereby increasing buying interest and sale value.

Alec said that despite the uncertainty of Brexit within the sheep sector, farmers were in a resilient mood and prices being paid reflected this attitude.

Across all pens of sheep, the average price paid for hoggets was £132 per head, which was an increase on last year.

Prices for Suffolk Cheviot hoggets were up by £20/head, with Mules also up by £15/head.

The sale got off to an electric start, with the first pen to be offered for sale setting the sale-topping price.

The pen consisted of 10 top-quality Greyface Mule hoggets, which sold to £160 per head. This was followed by the next three pens selling for £146, £142 and £148 for good-quality well-fleshed Mules with plenty of frame.

A run of lighter hoggets carrying less body condition were met with less bidding activity, with prices of £117 to £128, depending on quality.

Buyers were most active for larger-framed animals and an excellent entry of Suffolk-cross hoggets commanding strong bidding interest.

Fleshed Suffolk hoggets sold to £154 for a pen of eight animals, followed by several pens making £150 to £151 for Cheviot-cross animals vaccinated for Heptavac P.

Other noted prices saw lighter Greyface hoggets making £122 to £130 per head, with Suffolk ewes making £82.

Read more

Beef talks: Beef grid to be reviewed

Farmer Writes: what a summer for swarms of flies