THE opening sale of store lambs at Skipton mart attracted 4,258 head – over 900 more than the previous year.

A total clearance was achieved at an overall average selling price of £61.76 per head, up £3 on 2015.

Father and son Chris and Tom Heseltine, of JGE Heseltine, Hesketh House, Bolton Abbey, consigned the winning pen of 40 or more store lambs for the second year running.

Their Beltex-cross pen – 40 in total – were by home-bred rams and sold for £76 per head, to Thomas Walmsley, Haverah Park, Harrogate.

Stephen Maskill, show judge and Hebden Bridge butcher, described the winning pen as "well-drawn lambs ideal for the modern market."

The Heseltines’ 118-strong store lamb consignment averaged £71.13 per head overall, the best of the day.

The family, who also run the ever-popular visitor attraction Hesketh Farm Park, have this year lambed 1,100 sheep, producing around 1,000 Beltex-cross, 800 Texel-cross and 300 Mule lambs. All will be sold through Skipton.

The second prize pen, 50 Texel-cross from Bolton Abbey’s Roland Carr, sold at £70 per head, with the third prize 40-strong Texel-cross pen from Adrian Leach, Hebden Bridge, made £67.40 each.

The day’s top call of £79 per head fell to a Suffolk-cross entry from Malham partnership Swinbank & Briggs. Individual breed averages were all up on 2015: Beltex, £68.76; Texel £61.54; Suffolk £62.14; Hampshire £59.53; Charollais £58.16 and Mule £53.11

Skipton’s second major seasonal store lamb sale on Wednesday (27) expects an entry of 6,000 to 7,000.