Kington Market, April 20

The fat hogget trade was firm throughout and good demand for all weight ranges as long as they were good meat. Meat is king at present. Lean hoggets were difficult to sell even on a good trade. It is well worth selecting good meated hoggets to meet the buyers requirements and improve returns to the seller.

Hoggets: We had an entry of 1353 hoggets, which sold to a good trade on the week with good demand on all sorts from the buyers. Well bred and meated hoggets received the best trade.

The hoggets between 45kg and 50kg averaged 1.72ppk and £83 per head up to £89 per head.

Heavy hoggets in excess of 50kg averaged £1.55ppk and £84 per head up to £84.50 from GW Bevan.

Good meated and well-bred hoggets sold between £1.85ppk and £2.00ppk for hoggets up to 47kg.

There was a particularly good trade on the lighter lambs again under 36kg. This weight range averaged £1.85ppk up to £1.90ppk.

The SQQ price for the market was a very good £1.87ppk with an average for the whole market ranging from the lightest to the heaviest hoggets being £1.78ppk.

The average price per hogget in the market was an excellent £79 per head.

Hoggets between 25.5kg to 32kg averaged 1.85ppk up to 1.90ppk.

Hoggets between 32.5kg to 39kg averaged 1.86ppk up to 1.94ppk.

Hoggets between 39.1kg to 45.5kg averaged 1.87ppk up to 2.00ppk.

Hoggets between 45.6kg to 52kg averaged 1.72ppk up to 1.90ppk.

Hoggets over 52kg averaged £1.54ppk up to £1.60ppk.

Hoggets with teeth up averaged £73 per head up to £79 per head.

We had a good entry of 120 spring lambs which averaged £2.52ppk up to £2.60ppk and £99 per lamb.

We are fortunate to have excellent buyer support from 7 regular buyers giving excellent competition for the lambs each week.

Cull ewes, tups, wethers, store lambs: There was a good entry of 414 cull and store sheep, which sold to a strong trade on the week.

All ewes forward sold well with premium prices being paid for the best meated and bred sheep.

The cull sheep sold to a top of £118 per head for some Suffolk cross ewes from Owen Morgan and averaged a good £68 per head.

Continental cross and strong ewes averaged £97 per head and sold up to £118 per head.

Mule type's ewes averaged £72 per head and sold up to £85 per head.

Welsh, Speckle and smaller hill type ewes averaged £56 per head and sold up to £70 per head.

Tups averaged an £80 per head and sold up to £99 per head.

Light and store hoggets sold to an excellent trade again with a good following of buyers. They averaged £65 per head and sold up to £70 per head or £1.90ppk. We have an excellent section for light hoggets (36kg and down) and good buying support.

We have buyers requiring store lambs and light lambs 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, light and store lambs.

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