Gimmer lambs to the fore as CCM store trade takes another rise on year

Annual prize shows for top draw gimmer lambs again featured at CCM Skipton’s opening September fortnightly Wednesday store lambs fixture, with the total turnout of 6557 head trading to an overall all-breeds average of £126.33, another tidy rise just a few pence shy of £11 per head on the previous year’s £115.36.Classes for Continental-x, Suffolk-x and Cheviot Mule gimmer lambs provided an enticing showcase of good quality lambs, with trade described as buoyant despite numbers being slightly down on last year.Jason Craddock, Flass Farm, Bolton-by-Bowland, which he runs with father, Roger, reclaimed the commercial gimmer lambs crown he won in 2023 after being knocked into second place last year. His pen of ten April-born home-bred lambs, out of pure Texels by a variety of their own pure Texel stock tups, caught the eye of judge Martin Brown, Leyburn. They went on to realise top call of £330 per head, heading north to Carlisle. Flass Farm lambs around 300 each year and pure Texels are the base for everything they breed, with some females put to a Beltex tup.Taking the runner-up rosette, defending section champions Joe and Nancy Troup, Berwick Intake Farm, Draughton, brought a strong pen of ten gimmer lambs by a Procter's Farm Texel tup out of North of England Mule ewes that proved the best of the first-crossed Texel at £220 each. Third place went to Howard Barker, Fewston, for a pen of 10 Beltex-x gimmer lambs making £185.Victorious for the third time in four years in the Suffolk-x section, also standing runner-up in show, was Robert Metcalfe, Grange Farm, Brearton, with his home-bred lambs, the majority by top-end tups to a run 1200 North of England Mule ewes.Both fell to show judge and Skipton regular Thomas Walmsley, Haverah Park, Harrogate, at section highs of £235 and £210. "They were tremendous lambs; big and powerful with great skins and heads which Robert presented very well again," said Thomas. Robert also sold six further pens from £155 up to £180, his consignment of 481 Suffolk gimmers averaging £156.Last year's class victor, Matt Reeday, F Reeday & Son, Manor Farm, Hetton, took the third place rosette, his lambs making £170.Thomas also judged the Cheviot Mules, tapping out first and second places to Chipping farmer John Stott, Laund Farm, who has now won the section for the fourth year in a row - he farms with his wife Christine and son, Simon. Again by home-bred Bluefaced Leicester tups, they sold at £210 and £198 respectively.Two pens of Mule gimmer lambs from Jack Foster, Wigglesworth, sold for £132 and £120. The fixture, sponsored by Top Tags Animal ID and Nick Booth Haulage Ltd, was the conclusion of three hectic days that saw almost 15,000 store, gimmer and prime lambs traded through Skipton, with more of the same to follow!