Sheep prospects good

July 29th kicks off a busy three-month period for Harrison & Hetherington at Borderway and its other centres across the north as the main sheep sales season begins.

Over the years, Borderway with its easily accessible location has established itself as a leading centre for lowland pedigree and commercial sheep breeding sales, staging official annual events for the majority of the UK societies. Centres at Kirkby Stephen, St Johns Chapel, Middleton in Teesdale, Lazonby, Broughton in Furness, Newcastleton and Lockerbie are major venues for hill bred sheep including the Swaledale, North and South Country Cheviot, Blackface and Herdwick as well as their crossbred female breeding sheep.

Auctioneer John Wharton, anticipating a good trade this autumn, said:
"With the early prime lamb trade being so good this year over the previous year the prospects for this season's breeding sheep sales look optimistic. "In June the prime lamb sector was averaging 16p per kg more than over similar weeks last year for all types of lambs." He added: "There is still a bit of a scarcity value with livestock and more producers are concentrating on specialising in one particular sector to maximise their profits. " The Single Farm Payment is unlikely to affects sheep stocking levels until possibly 18 months to two years' time as farmers are going to have to generate an income until their first subsidy payment comes through which is now expected to be mid 2006. "It will only be when farmers know exactly how much they are going to get from this payment that they will look at their stocking levels with a view to perhaps managing the farm themselves."

The first event of the season at Borderway is the early breeding ewe sale on July 29. Two main sale days in August - Fridays 12 and 26 - concentrate on seven different sheep breeds as well as sales of breeding ewes mainly Suffolks and continentals.

Now a firm fixture on the Borderway calendar is the 22nd annual show and sale for then Solway and Tyne Texel Breeders' Club on September 1 and 2. As well as conducting a sale at the annual NSA event at Kelso in September, there are sales for North of England Mule gimmer shearlings and lambs, the latter event on September 15 now including a show which adds extra interest. Towards the end of the month, the official Lleyn sale continues to draw huge entries.

Into October, another long-standing fixture on October 7 features Bluefaced Leicester sheep, attracting buyers and sellers from all over the UK and Ireland During July the weekly store lamb sales begin in earnest attracting large numbers.

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