The average prices for hoggets were down slightly on last year, but ewe lambs edged up, at the first breeding sheep sale of the season at Ballymena Livestock Mart last Saturday.

Overall, a large show of 2,635 hoggets sold to an average of £152 at the annual Suffolk Cheviot and continental cross sale.

Morris Breen from Drumderg received the top three prices on the day with £280, £255 and £215 paid for individual pens of his sucked Suffolk Cheviot hoggets. Breen also had the highest seller’s average, with his five pens realising an average of £227 per head.

James Alexander from Randalstown received the next highest price with £210 paid for a pen of his Suffolk Cheviot hoggets. The hammer dropped at £200 four times during Alexander’s sale of 15 pens.

In the Suffolk Cheviot show before the sale, Patrick Donnelly from Rathkenny had his top pen placed first, with William Blackburn from Clogher getting second and Diane Gibson from Newtownabbey third. The three prize-winning pens all sold for the same price of £195 in the sales ring.

As shown in Table 1, the average hogget price was back slightly year on year, but it is compared against a strong opening sale in Ballymena last season when prices were up £24.50 on 2015.

Replacement ewe buyers on Saturday were probably also aware of recent cuts to fat lamb prices, with quotes from factories this week of 395p/kg to 400p/kg, only around 10p/kg ahead of the same week last year.

Ewe lambs

However, ewe lambs met a lively trade on Saturday with the average price up £9 compared with the first breeding sheep sale of 2016 (Table 1). There were 582 Suffolk Cheviot and continental cross ewe lambs sold in the far ring at an average price of £93.

Topping the ewe lamb sale at £138 was Logan Anderson from Kilwaughter with a pen of Suffolk Cheviots.