MCCARTNEY'S of Kington report a good entry of 2183 sheep.

Lambs: We had a good entry of 1694 lambs which sold to a better trade on the week with all weights in good demand.

The heavy weight lambs over 50kg sold well and to an improved trade with good demand. The buyers are requiring good meated lambs which are not fat.

The export of sheep meat remains slow and lambs in the 38kg to 42kg would be the more difficult weights to sell on the day.

The averaged weight of the lambs in the market was 46kgs with very few pens under 45kgs.

Light weight lambs under 35kgs were a reasonable trade and sold up to £1.60ppk and averaged £1.56ppk.

Lambs under 43kg sold mainly between £1.60ppk and £1.70ppk and averaged £1.62ppk.

Lambs between 43kg and 50kg sold between £1.55 and £1.65ppk and averaged £1.59ppk.

Heavy lambs over 50kg sold well and mainly between £1.52ppk and £1.60ppk and to an average of £1.54 ppk.

The lambs averaged a good £1.62ppk and sold up to £1.68ppk.

All the lambs averaged a good £72 per head up to £87 per head for some 60kg lambs from PW Jones.

Lambs between 32.5kg and 39kg averaged 1.58ppk up to 1.65ppk.

Lambs between 39.5kg and 45.5kg averaged 1.62ppk up to 1.68ppk.

Lambs between 46kg and 52kg averaged 1.58ppk up to 1.65ppk.

Lambs over 52kg averaged 1.53ppk up to 1.59ppk.

We are fortunate to have excellent buyer support from six buyers giving excellent competition for the lambs.

Cull ewes, tups, wethers, store lambs: There was a good entry of 489 cull and store sheep, which sold to an improved trade on the week.

The buyers are requiring meated ewes but not fat for their orders.

The smaller hill type ewes would again sell well as long as they were well meated but not fat.

Best Texel ewes were also a good trade selling to £116.50 per head from PW Jones.

Tups still remain an excellent trade and have strong demand and sold up to £129 per head from CJ and JA Cooke.

We have six excellent buyers in attendance and good competition between them and require more sheep to suffice their demand on a Thursday.

The ewes sold to a top of £116.50 and averaged a £62 per head which included smaller hill ewes.

The cull tups sold up to £129 per head and averaged £82 per head.

Light weight lambs under 35kgs were a good trade with good competition and they averaged £1.56ppk up to £1.60ppk.

Store lambs also sold to a strong trade and up to £60 and averaged £52.

We have buyers requiring light lambs each week to suffice their orders. The cull ewes included a large proportion of thinner mule ewes and smaller hill ewes.

We have buyers for in excess of 3000 lambs 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 no charge basis.

Kington Market is every Thursday, commencing at 11am with lambs followed by cull sheep.

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