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Well as I start to write my third chairman’s report for Mule News and look back on the year, we couldn’t have had a better lambing. Day after day of good weather and lambs everywhere. Trouble was all these lambs were going to cause big problems later. Good weather continued right up to the NSA event on 6th June hosted by the Skidmore family. A very good event with a lot of people attending from a wide area, but I couldn’t help thinking, looking around all the trade stands that a lot of people are getting more out of us keeping sheep than we are. Shortly after that the weather changed to wet and unsettled and lambs seemed to stop growing, in fact, quite a few shrank! They did pick up and looked good ready for the sales, the trouble was a few days before Teesdale Sales foot and mouth returned. Obviously the government has different bio-security than farmers have to follow, enough said. Re-scheduled sales started and Teesdale’s first at Middleton Mart on 9th October can only be described as a disaster although there were one thousand less entered than the first proposed sale. Quite a lot didn’t find new homes. Many buyers of last year still had shearlings to sell and the ones that had sold them met a poor trade. Prize winners were:-
Sale average £32.39 down £17.71 on 2006 and I must say I’ve seen happier people at a funeral. The following day Barnard Castle held its sale. Trade started off poor but did get a little better at times. Prize winners were:-
Sale average of £36 down £18.50 on 2006. A big thank you to both marts and staff and also to judges and sponsors. Also our committee and Rebecca for all their help and support. The next job will be to find a guest speaker for our A.G.M. Top of the list should be someone from theSamaritans. All the best of luck for 2008. JOHN WATSON |
