McCARTNEY'S of Kington report a good entry of 1464 sheep on April 14.

Hoggets: We had an entry of 1008 hogget’s which sold to a better trade on the week. Less numbers being marketed nationally has assisted with this.

The buyers are requiring meat which is extremely important to the buyers and again lean hogget’s were at a price disadvantage. There was much better demand on all types of hogget’s this week and welsh assured hogget’s would be selling to market premiums.

The hogget’s averaged £1.89ppk and sold up to £2.03ppk for some 38.50kg hogget’s from RR Jones and CO.

All the hoggets averaged £84 per head up to £92 per head for some 60kg hogget’s from EW Gore.

Hogget’s between 32.5kg to 39kg averaged 1.85ppk up to 2.03ppk.

Hogget’s between 39.1kg to 45.5kg averaged 1.90ppk up to 1.94ppk.

Hogget’s between 45.6kg to 52kg averaged 1.78ppk up to 1.88ppk.

Hogget’s over 52kg averaged 1.60ppk up to 1.72ppk.

We had a large number of heavier hogget’s forward with very few pens under 43kg. The 39kg to 43kg hogget’s sold extremely well with excellent competition.

We are fortunate to have excellent buyer support from 6 buyers giving excellent competition for the hogget’s.

Spring Lambs: We had a good entry of spring lambs which sold to a good trade on the week. Lambs up to 40kg averaged a good £2.40ppk. Lambs over 43kg averaged £2.25ppk.

The buyers are looking for lambs between 37kg to 42kg to obtain premium market prices.

Cull ewes, tups, wethers, store lambs: There was a good entry of 456 cull and store sheep with a larger number of thinner and hill breeds in the entry this week, which sold to a good trade again which would be slightly lower than last week due to larger numbers being marketed nationally over the past week.

The cull sheep sold to a top of £121 per head for some Suffolk cross ewes from S Williams and Son and averaged a good £70 per head.

Continental ewes averaged £112 per head and sold up to £120 per head.

Mule types ewes averaged £72 per head and sold up to £87 per head.

Welsh, Speckle and smaller hill type ewes averaged £55 per head and sold up to £65 per head.

Tups averaged an excellent £97 per head and sold up to £136 per head.

Small Store hoggets averaged £59 per head up to £66.50 per head.

Light lambs under 32kg averages 1.85ppk.

We have buyers requiring store hoggets and light hoggets each week to suffice their orders.

We have buyers for in excess of 3000 hoggets and 750 cull sheep per week to meet our buyers’ requirements.

McCartneys at Kington, offer an on-farm livestock grading and marketing advice service on a free of charge basis.

Kington Market is every Thursday, commencing at 11am with Hoggets followed by Cull sheep.

For further information please contact Gareth Wall on 01544 230316 or 0797414336