Rearing Calves to £450
A large show of calves this morning with the New Year show and sale, Mark Houseman of Church Farm Enterprises took the Champion rosette with a tremendous British Blue calf which Judge Tony Binns said “I picked it out soon as I walked in the pen”. The calf that was 6 weeks of age sold for £440 to the Judge Tony Binns, however it was another big dark blue from the JP&KE Hartley of Bolton Abbey which took the top price of the day at £450 selling to Simon Thompson of Driffield. More than half of the British Blue bulls on offers today saw £400+ with Pickersgill brothers from Hawksworth reaching £400 twice for their Limousin consignments.
Heifers were healthy trade for the better quality entries with four heifers from Church Farm Enterprises averaging £403 and ¾ of all BB heifers past £350. Natives were well supported with AA bulls averaging £233 for all quality with JM Smith of Carleton topping at £300 for a cracking named sire entry.
Black and whites were definitely better to sell today than December, partly down to the size and quality on offer, but also a couple of fresh faces making the better calves a strong trade with Richard Spence’s tremendous Frieisian bull topping the day at £230 with a section average of £81.35.
Bull Calves
Cont av £360.32 Native av £233
Limousin x (Av £335.06) to £400X2 G Pickersgill & Sons
Brit Blue x (Av £378.6) to £450 JP&KE Hartley
Aberdeen Angus (Av £233) to £300 JM Smith & Son
Shorthorn (Av £50.40) to £65 Flasby Estates
Black & White (Av £81.35) to £230 RM Spence
Heifer Calves
Cont av £320.6 Native av £203.2
Ab Angus (Av £221.67) to £260 JC Marshall
British Blue (Av £332.65) to £420 GB Moorhouse
Lim (Av £284) to £345 D Clarke