The breeding sheep sales got off to a strong start at Ballymena mart on Saturday with the first major sale of the season seeing Suffolk Cheviot and continental cross hoggets up £24.50 on average compared with the same sale last year. In total, 2,280 sold to an average price of £157.

The highest-priced pen on the day at £340 (up from a top price of £200 last year), and also first in the Suffolk Cheviot show beforehand, was from Diane Gibson from Newtonabbey. Her 14 pens, which included 169 hoggets, sold to an average price of £190.

Four sellers had pens that sold to the next highest price of £200. The first was exhibited by Maurice Breen from Tempo, who also had the highest seller’s average of £193 for his show of 60 mostly sucked Suffolk Cheviots.

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James Alexander from Randalstown sold two of his 20 pens of Suffolk Cheviot hoggets for £200 and Desmond Knox from Kesh sold his top pen, that were placed third in the show, for the same price.

Placed second in the Suffolk Cheviot show and selling this pen of hoggets for £190 was Patrick Donnelly from Rathkenny. He sold a second pen for £195.

A show of Texel cross hoggets also took place before the sale with N McGarrigle from Irvinestown taking first, and the pen of 14 later selling for £165.

The good trade for hoggets reflected improved prices for fat lambs this year. Quotes from factories this week of 390p/kg are up by 70p/kg to 80p/kg compared with the same week last year, equating to between £14.70 and £16.80 on a 21kg lamb.

Ewe lambs

In the far ring, Shaun Irvine auctioned off the ewe lambs with Logan Anderson from Kilwaughter taking the top ewe lamb price of £142 for a pen of Suffolk Cheviots. This was up £10 from the price paid for the top pen last year.

Logan also received the next highest price of £115 for his second pen. Tony Rogers from Broughshane received £112 and £106 for his top two pens of Suffolk Cheviot ewe lambs.

There were 232 more Suffolk Cheviot and continental cross ewe lambs on show compared with last year, but the average price was down slightly by £1 per head. In total, 622 ewe lambs sold to an average of £84.

Demand from bidders was less for plainer types and was generally strongest for Suffolk Cheviot-bred ewe lambs. However, Colin Gregg of Glarryford received £112 for a strong pen of Texel Rouge crosses.

Hoggets met a steady trade at the breeding sheep sale in Armoy mart on Tuesday evening, with a full clearance of the 600 hoggets on show.

The top price on the night was £180, paid twice to J. Black of Ballyvoy, firstly for a pen of Mule hoggets, and then a pen of Suffolk Cheviots.

The biggest proportion of hoggets on show were Texel Mule crosses. The highest priced pen made £155, with the run of Texel cross lots making from £130 to £140. A smaller selection of Suffolk Cheviot and Mule ewes were also on offer.

Plainer types or less well presented hoggets sold well accordingly, mostly from £110 to £120. Overall, the average pen price on the night was around £130.