Rory Livesey, joined the Harrison & Hetherington team at Borderway Mart, Carlisle this summer as an auctioneer and fieldsperson. As part of his role with the company at Borderway he is also responsible for overseeing the seasonal sales at Broughton in Furness.  Here he looks back on what he describes as a: “fast and furious three months, that has opened up exciting new opportunities and challenges, and relishing the opportunity to be involved with the Pedigree Sales.”

Born and bred in Lilliesleaf in the Scottish Borders where his family farm a herd of pedigree Salers cattle and a flock of commercial breeding ewes and he has grown up showing pedigree livestock across the country. Rory studied Rural Enterprise and Land Management at Harper Adams University where he also gained his Livestock Markets Operations and Management qualification, before kicking off his auctioneering career in 2012.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the clients and building relationships with my colleagues as I find my feet within H&H,” begins Rory. “I have wanted to be an auctioneer for as long as I can remember, having always seen the attraction of working with livestock and farmers and helping people throughout the country achieve the best prices for their stock.

“I started my career at Acklington Market in Northumberland before moving to Aberdeen and Northern Marts based at Thainstone. I am very pleased to have now joined the team at H&H and, with ten years’ industry experience, I know that the large scale and diverse nature of the H&H business offers me a broad range of opportunities, which is exciting! There is such a huge variety and all classes of stock, as well as a sizeable cliental to cater for.

“What I am especially enjoying is the team spirit and the incredibly varied role; on a Monday I can be involved with the prime and store sheep at Borderway, Wednesday can be numbering, sorting and selling store and weanling cattle at Borderway, and other days supporting teams at other centres. I’m often involved with the pedigree sales, and have been selling all classes of pedigree livestock as and when required. So far, I have particularly enjoyed supporting the pedigree sheep at the summer breeding sheep sales, selling tups at the Kelso Ram Sale, and also the Borderway sales of Berrichon, Badger Face Texels, Blue Texels Blue Faced Leicester’s and Rylands.

“Apart from selling the highest priced sheep of his career so far, the main champion and reserve overall Badger Faced Texel Ram lamb for 8000 guineas Some of the highlights so far have been the Beltex Sale and the Solway and Tyne Texel sale, the shows and sales of store cattle, and drawing cattle for the noted Aberdeen Angus sale at Newtown St Boswells. I have just returned from a store cattle sale at Middleton-in-Teesdale which saw just over 550 head go under the hammer; it was a spectacular show of quality stock, some very high prices achieved, and buyers from all over the country, which is testament to the farmers in the area.

“Since starting I have been heavily involved in the Broughton-in Furness sales and so far we have had tremendous sales with centre records being broken at both the annual tup and breeding sales. At our store lamb sale we saw in the region of 1500 mostly hill lambs; Herdwicks, Cheviots and a few Texel and Suffolk crosses. The Herdwick wether lamb sale achieved good prices too and was ahead of similar sales at the time.

“We had a fantastic show of tups at our annual Herdwick and Swaledale sales. It was an enjoyable day with a huge buzz, the atmosphere was incredible which reflected in the trade. The same can be said for the ewes too. Good Herdwick breeding sheep are increasingly hard to source and so buyers travel long distances to Broughton to purchase high quality well-bred, hardy stock. This is what the centre is renowned for. It was a privilege to support James Little at these sales, especially with the centre record of £10,000 for a Herdwick tup and pen of five ewes sold for £400 per head.

“Going back to Broughton, in the early part of the season, when the weather was good, we were seeing good quality stock coming forward, however the decline in weather and the increased rain has certainly impacted quality. We are ending the season seeing smaller lambs than usual and, although this is to be expected, it is proving challenging under the hammer. Our last sale of the season will be the Annual Christmas Show with all classes of prime lambs.

“Looking at cattle sales, the suckled calf sale in early October saw trade up on the year by between £50 and £80 per head, and some very good cattle brought forward, which is encouraging to a wide range of buyers and helping to widen our radius as a market.

“I am thoroughly enjoying being part of such a highly regarded and knowledgeable team. It has been a great pleasure meeting and getting to know the famers and their enterprises and building working relationships. Multi-tasking across a range of centres certainly has its challenges, but this is helped by being part of such a progressive organisation with a UK wide client portfolio. And as we head into 2023, I am looking forward to further building on the excellent service for which the company is renowned and working with customers both sides of the Borders.”