Prices holdup at Thame

Messrs Gore Farms, Culworth, sold a pure-bred pen, all run dry, for £162. G.J. Brown and Sons, Woodeaton, sold to £161, with F.C. Lester and Son, Radclive, selling pens for £158 and £157.

North of England Mules sold to a high of £170 for Peter and David Morris, Brill, Alyesbury, who took the NEMSA cup of best run of 60 or more North of England Mule Theaves.

The buyer was judge Ross Sizmur, Okehampton. Overall average was £122 for 6,500, up £5 on the year.

Ewe lambs were slightly harder to sell, with top prices coming from the run of 600 Texel crosses from T.C. Dawson, Ferryhill, Co Durham which topped at £91.

Store lamb numbers were up on last year, although several bigger buyers purchasing long-keep lambs were cautious, with a budget of under £50, stronger lambs sold to £71 for a pen of Charollais crosses from Barton Farms, Barton Hartshorne.

Pedigree trade met a much firmer demand than 12 months ago, when times were generally dry and grass was scarce in comparison to current conditions.

Shearling rams sold to £1,200 for a Beltex, Bishops Dennis The Menace, from A. Bishop, Preston, one by Woodies Beyond Limits and out of a Bulldog daughter.

Ram lambs peaked at £420 for a Charollais from G.A. and J.A. Curtis, Evesham, and females to £950 for a shearling ewe, another from the Bishops flock, Bishops Daffodil, a The Bulldog daughter.