Auctioneer and farmstock sales manager Ted Ogden has been selling sheep at CCM Skipton Auction Mart on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales for the last 14 years. Skipton is ideally situated to serve butchers and farm shops in the market towns of Yorkshire and the urban areas of East Lancashire, Leeds, Bradford and Halifax. The East and West Pennines have numerous market towns and it is the independent buyers of retail butchers and farm shops that source lambs from Skipton Mart throughout the year.
Talking about his experience of Suffolk x lamb sales Ted commented “there is a good demand for Suffolk x lambs in the spring. The Suffolk x is ideally suited for the early lamb production due to the ability to grow and finish quickly. The Suffolk tup is used on flocks with mixed farming enterprises in the North of England as for a dairy farmer with a sheep flock grass is at a premium in the summer months and the Suffolk x lambs are lambed in late January and early February and are sold at Skipton to meet the early spring lamb trade as they grow and finish quickly which means the summer grass is used for beef or dairy cattle on the farm.”
Customers of CCM Skipton who produce early lambs use the Suffolk on the North of England Mule or continental x ewes to produce prime lambs that reach target weights in a short time.
Ted Ogden continued “we have a good demand for Suffolk x store lambs at our fortnightly sales starting in July and going through to February with numbers at these sales being eight to ten thousand in peak season.”
Suffolk x Mule ewe lambs are sought after from Skipton and Ted Ogden highlighted the popularity of the Suffolk x Mule breeding ewe due to inheriting traits from the North Country Mule this makes her an excellent commercial ewe that produces top quality prime lambs when crossed with any terminal sire.
CCM Skipton also hold Suffolk Ram Sales annually. Dates for 2021 are 20th August and 1st October with Suffolk Female Sale held on 6th November and can be found on the Society website.
For more information please visit https://www.ccmauctions.com