Farming
By Alec Ross
Bullocks at St Boswells yesterday averaged 285p/kg and sold to 330p/kg, while heifers averaged 296p/kg and sold to 332p/kg.
Cast cows averaged 204p/kg and sold to 239p/kg, while hoggs finally dropped after months of strong demand, falling 16p on the week to average 361p/kg and selling to £224/head for Texels or to 420p/kg for Beltexes. And cast sheep averaged £90/head and sold to £187 for a Texel ewe.
Hoggets met with a season high demand at Ayr yesterday, averaging 365p/kg or £155/head, and sold to £204/head for Texels from Low Drumclog or to 440p/kg for Beltexes from Lyonston, with Blackies peaking at £196 for Gass or 393p/kg for both Craig and Pinvalley.
Cast sheep easily maintained recent rates and sold to £214 for a Texel ewe from Loch Green, while tups sold to £167 for the same breed for Crawlaw and Mules peaked at £138 for Laigh Langcraig.
Prime heifers rose by 5p/head on the week at Carlisle yesterday to average 292p/kg and sold to 330p/kg, but beef-bred bullocks dropped by 9p/kg to average 288p/kg and sold to 308p/kg.
Trade in young bulls remained steady with dairy-bred types rising by 3p on the week to an average of 229p/kg and sold to 271p/kg. And cast cows again met with demand, with beef and dairy types rising by 5p and 9p to average 195p/kg and 163p/kg respectively.
And the extraordinary hogg trade continued, with prices rising by 30p on the week to average 406p/kg and peaked at 513p/kg or £275/head. Lowland ewes averaged £159/head and sold to £340 for a Texel, while hill ewes averaged £77/head and sold to £148 for a Hill Cheviot.
Prime beef heifers at Lanark yesterday rose 4p on the week to average 304p/kg and sold to 342p/kg for a Limousin cross, while bullocks rose by the same value to an average of 291p/kg and sold to 330p/kg, again for a Limousin cross.
Cast dairy cows continued to meet with steady demand and rose by 3p on the week to average 150p/kg, while hoggets continued to rise, jumping 8p on the week to average 306p/kg, and sold to £278/head.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here