The autumn sheep sales are under way and early indications are that prices will be up on the year. With so much at stake, many spend a lot of time preparing their sheep for those all-important few minutes in the auction ring under the watchful eyes of canny buyers.

First important task is to draw the lambs into even-sized batches. You might think that it would be easy to hide a few smaller ones among a bunch of a hundred, but nothing could be further from the truth. Small lambs tend to be pushed to the edge of a group by the bigger, stronger ones, and end up walking round on the outside of the ring in full view of the buyers, who then bid accordingly.

All lambs have to be presented to look their best, and that involves dressing them, or titivating them up. Different classes of sheep require different levels of dressing. So store lambs being sold for further fattening get a basic "tidy-up", while breeding sheep are often treated to a full "make-over".

It may seem like a lot of unnecessary work, but believe me, when you are at a sale where there are thousands of other sheep on offer it is vital that you catch the buyers' eyes to extract those few extra, vital bids.

Unfortunately it would seem that buyers can't see beyond a dressed sheep. It's also a proven fact that badly-presented sheep never fetch good prices. Apart from that, selling sheep is a matter of pride with most wanting them to look their best on the day.

It's important when handling sheep prior to sale to work in clean, dry pens. There's nothing worse than trying to sell dirty sheep. Sheep have an infuriating habit of jumping on top of each other when they are crammed together, and smear muck on their hooves onto the fleeces of others. The best way to minimise that risk is to work undercover and scatter plenty of sawdust in the pens.

Store lambs that have been reared on the hill or poor upland grazing often get diarrhoea, or "skitter" as we call it when they are weaned into fields of lush pasture. Skittering soils the wool on their tails and backsides, and should preferably be washed off, or, if it has become dried onto the wool, clipped off with shears.

It's when breeding sheep are being dressed that some enthusiasts go to town.

I used to breed Scotch Mule ewe lambs, which are the result of crossing Bluefaced Leicester rams on Scottish Blackface ewes, a horned, hill breed. Scotch Mules are a favourite with low-ground sheep producers as they are prolific, milky ewes that rear big, meaty lambs.

Apart from having the potential to grow into big ewes, a good Scotch Mule ewe lamb should have a good "skin", or fleece of fine, purled wool (ringlets). They should also have bold, alert heads with dark brown patches. Dressing Mules enhances those features.

Firstly I sheared the wool off their bellies to increase the gap between their bodies and the ground to make them look bigger and longer of the leg. At the same time I trimmed the wool away from their cheeks and the front of their necks to make them look longer.

Then I shaved their heads with cattle clippers as well as trimming any long hairs from inside their ears. White hairs tend to be longer than brown ones, so shaving a sheep's head makes all the hairs the same length. That highlights the brown patches and makes the head look cleaner and brighter. Removing hair from inside the ears is an old trick to make them look bigger. It also encourages them to keep their ears erect making them look more alert, or "sharp" as we call it.

After all that palaver they were dipped in solutions of chemicals that coloured their fleeces the correct shade of brown as well as tightening the purls in their wool. Finally, the day before the sale their faces were washed.

Having got them looking their best, another factor influencing prices is your position in the sale catalogue. Nobody wants to be first in the ring before all the buyers have arrived and established the trade for the day, neither do you want to be last after buyers have bought-up and gone home. Auctioneers hold ballots before main sales to set the order of the catalogue in a fair way . Despite that, you would be amazed how many catalogued in an unfavourable part of the sale reckon the ballot was fixed.