ANM Group has hailed a successful year of livestock sales with an increase in the average value of cattle and sheep sold through its rings last year.
The north-east farmers’ co-operative, which runs livestock auction marts at Thainstone near Inverurie and at Quoybrae in Caithness, experienced a 10.72% increase in the value of animals handled through its centres in 2021.
Speaking at the co-op’s virtual annual general meeting, ANM head of livestock John Angus said it was the second consecutive year that the group had experienced double-digit growth in its livestock throughput.
He said the co-op sold 67,577 cattle in the year, with the average value of all cattle sold up by 9.95%.
The average value of store cattle sold by ANM was up 10.52% to £1,077.59, while the average value of cull cattle increased by £123 a head, or 12.81%, to £1,079.99.
Mr Angus said ANM sold 289,955 sheep during the year and the average value of all sheep sold was up 18% on 2020 figures.
He said the average value of store lambs was up by almost a fifth to just over £81, while average prime sheep values increased by 22.1% to £116.21.
“Our livestock sales continue to be well supported at the ringside and backed by our online [bidding] facility,” said Mr Angus.
He encouraged farmers to increase the size of their lots and said animals sold in a group lot, rather than individually, attracted higher prices.
Outgoing ANM Group chairman and Banchory farmer Peter Watson, who retired from his role at the virtual AGM, stressed the importance of the live auction ring and said without livestock auctions farmers would be “selling blind”.
He said: “I hope that more and more people will come to recognise the benefits of the ring in bringing together buyers and sellers to generate competition for their product.”
Mr Watson will be replaced in the chairman role by vice-chairman Mike Macaulay, who is chairman of GPH Builders Merchants Ltd and runs a herd of Aberdeen-Angus cattle with his wife near Kinellar.
Earlier this month ANM Group posted its annual results for 2021, which showed a 221% increase in pre-tax profits to £437,000 for the year to December 31, 2021.
The group also posted a 10% increase in throughput to £133.28 million, from £121.39m the year before, and its trading profit was up 25% to £659,000.