The Ockley sale near Dorking in Surrey on May 1st was most unfortunate to co-incide with appalling weather, rain and flooding in many parts of the UK of almost ‘Biblical’ proportions and 2 serious accidents on routes not far from the farm. Attendance was poor and as a result the sale was stopped after some 60 lots. There simply were not enough people to achieve competitive bidding and it was not fair on the vendor to offer cattle in this situation. Those who had come for a load of cattle but were prevented from achieving this were offered the choice to cancel the sale on their purchases.
Buyers who had indicated they were coming to the sale cried off due to bad travelling conditions and perhaps more significantly many had to bring herds back into winter housing due to water-logged fields with limited feed stocks and straw at £100 / tonne
The catalogue was in descending age order and the older cows reached a top of 1,300 guineas for an August calving daughter of Lucius. The remaining cows and served heifers will be sold later.
Auctioneers: NORTON & BROOKSBANK
