Ludlow Livestock Market

Michael was born in 1979 to a North Herefordshire farming family. Educated at Tenbury High School from where he joined McCartneys LLP in 1995.

Michael has furthered his education while at McCartneys by becoming a qualified Livestock and Real Estate Auctioneer.

Auctioneering duties include selling both sheep and cattle at Ludlow and Worcester plus the occasional farm sale.

As from January 1st 2010 Michael became a partner after being an associate for two years.

Outside of work Michael’s interests include watching England play test match cricket; he also enjoys his annual skiing trip.

“John Uffold was the Chairman of McCartneys and partner in charge of Ludlow Livestock Market, having joined the partnership some thirty six years ago, previously working in private practice in the West Country and East Midlands and, for a time, as a senior surveyor for the Land Service (formerly part of the then Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food – at the time John was the youngest senior surveyor appointed by the Ministry since the war). He is now a consultant with the business carrying out professional work and still selling the fat bulls at Ludlow Market each Monday.

Graduating from Reading University with a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Estate Management and being the last winner of The Estates Gazette Cup for the student of the year, John is a member of The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and a Fellow of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, a fellow of the livestock auctioneers association and member of the national association of Valuers and auctioneers. (John won the Society of Valuers and Auctioneers National Competition for young auctioneer of the year more years ago now than he cares to remember).
Whether a Lord or a smallholder, John treats everybody the same and has acted for both in his time at Ludlow, firmly believing it is the job of professional men to help the vulnerable in society and not just those that can pay a good fee.

John is married to Mary, who is his secretary at McCartneys, and has two children, Oliver 23 and Ruth 27. He is a member of a small family farming partnership breeding Pedigree Texel Sheep.

Formerly a keen young farmer himself, winning a Gold Medal at Smithfield for beef cattle and carcass judging, John also representing England at the European Rally for Tractor driving and fencing.
John has been associated with the Y.F.C. since moving to Shropshire and was instrumental in McCartneys apprenticeship scheme aimed at bringing young people into the firm and giving them professional training, a career and a job for life. An outdated concept to some but not to McCartneys.

Traditional values and principles, coupled with modern efficient service and keeping the business in its widest sense relevant to the world in which we live, have been and still are John’s core principles.

Field of Expertise
Family disputes? Divorce? Probate? Partnership disputes? Then read on.

It is a truism that experience is something that you can sell but never buy. Thirty two years of experience, in private practice and government has given John a wide range of experience in all rural professional work and livestock auctioneering. His specialisms, as regards professional work are:

Valuations for tax planning
Divorce valuations
Valuations involving tenancies and legal issues
Livestock valuations of all types
As Chairman he has been involved in disputes concerning umpires, arbitrations, court cases and is known in the locality as being able to broker a deal between parties even where they are, to start with, intransigent and emotionally involved. The ability to see both sides of the argument in a pragmatic, rational and businesslike manner is the key to his success. This is particularly important when dealing with divorce cases and partnership disputes.”

James joined McCartneys in 2017 after completing his degree at Harper Adams University, in which he spent his placement year based at Worcester Market. Originally James comes from Brecon where his family farm a successful flock of Pedigree Charollais sheep as well as flocks of Texel x ewes and Cheviot ewes.

Sports have always been a big passion of James’ and he played rugby for Brecon RFC from a very young age. He was also lucky enough to attend the noted Christ College Brecon School on a sports scholarship where he played vast amounts of rugby and cricket.

James is now responsible for the day to day running of Worcester Market where he sells the cull ewes along with all forms of store sheep and breeding sheep, and calves. He also sells pedigree sheep at society sales is responsible for entries and catalogues at Worcester.