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Camera at the Mart attended the weekly sale of fat and store sheep at Kilrea Mart on Monday, where 400 animals went under the hammer.
Sale numbers are holding steady week on week, but the quality of hoggets is becoming more variable, as a growing percentage of animals coming on to the market are bred from hill sheep.
That said, hoggets were a flying trade with prices up on previous weeks as buying agents were extremely competitive in securing numbers.
Mart manager Mark Stewart commented on the sale, stating that the sheep trade has been strengthening since mid-March and that farmers are benefitting from improved buying demand.
He added that more sheep are needed to meet demand at present, with the majority of heavy fleshed hoggets selling beyond the £100/head mark.
Hoggets sold to a top price of £109 for a pen of Texel-cross animals weighing 23kg half-weight, which equates to a factory price of 474p/kg.
This was followed by a pen of Suffolk-cross hoggets weighing 24kg half-weight which sold to £108, or 450p/kg.
A pen of top-quality Suffolk- and Texel-cross hoggets weighing 26kg half-weight sold to £107, or 412p/kg.
The main range of prices on good-quality fleshed hoggets was £102 to £106 per head.
An entry of well-bred Texel-cross animals weighing 25.5kg half-weight was met with brisk bidding activity and sold to £106.80, or 419p/kg.
This was matched by the first entry of the day with a pen of Texel hoggets weighing 26kg and this quickly set the tone for the sale.
A pen of 24kg crossbred hoggets sold to £106.20, with a pen of 23.5kg Texel hoggets making £105.
A pen of Suffolk hoggets weighing 26.5kg sold to £103.50, followed by £104.80 paid on an entry of 26.5kg crossbred animals.
Mule hoggets sold to a top price of £104 for a pen of 26.5kg animals, with other lots making from £101.20 to £103.50 for 24kg and 24.5kg animals.
Blackface hoggets sold from £89 rising to £99.80 for animals weighing 22kg to 24kg half-weight. Fat ewes sold to a top price of £100 for heavy fleshed animals.
Plainer ewes sold from £80 to £90, with good-quality feeding ewes making similar money
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