Nine days calved and giving 28kg, the victor, a solid wearing heifer with a cracking udder, was hard bid for, before selling for top call of £2,050 to Andrew Parker, of Emley, Huddersfield, who also bought Mr Caygill’s January champion.

Second generation dairy farmer Mr Caygill – the herd was established in Rysltone by his father Jim and currently has 300 cows in milk – also stepped up with the third prize newly calven heifer, Classic Delphi,  a real favourite at home, by another Genus sire, Laurelhill Classic. With a solid PLI (Profitable Lifetime Index) of 365, the 30kg 21 days calved heifer sold for £1,730 to James Goulding, of Castley, Otley.

Defending champions, father and daughter, David and Suzy Lawson, of the Newbirks pedigree herd at Mill Farm, Arthington, had to settle for reserve championship honours at the latest renewal with the first prize newly calven cow, another quality product of their prolific Jazz family. Newbirks Jazz 1688, a second calver by Larcrest Cancun, came to market eight days calved and giving 35kg. She sold for £1,750 to show judge and regular Skipton dairy buyer Brian Blezard, of Ribchester,

Back with the heifers, Ingleview Ricardo Ellie, the show class runner-up from the Ingleview pedigree herd of Bentham’s Robert and Elaine Butterfield, was by their own home-bred stock bull Ricardo. Giving 26 kg, she sold for £1,820 to regular buyer Mark Goodall, of Tong, Bradford. The Butterfields also sold a newly calven pedigree Jersey heifer for £1,200.

Thomas and Libby Simpson, of Red House Farm, Ripon, were again among the prizes with both the second and third prize newly calven cows, which peaked at £1,800 for a 40kg entry again claimed by Mr Parker.

The four second calvers among the 14-strong turnout of milkers all sold well to average £1,717 per head overall, with pedigree newly calven heifers doing best as usual when averaging £1,831 and their commercial counterparts £1,495, these peaking at £1,750 for an offering from the Robinson family in Eldroth. National Milk Records again sponsored.

Rearing calf trade healthy
The same day’s weekly rearing calf sale again saw healthy trade for the 60 on offer, which sold to a high of £410 for a Limousin-cross bull calf from first-time calf vendors Wood Bros in Manchester, who also hit £400 with a second same way bred entry.

Regular vendors Pickersgill Bros, of Guiseley, caught the eye with £405 and £400 Limousin-cross bull calves, while British Blue-cross bull calves sold to a high of £400 for one from Johnny and Simon Moon in Wigglesworth, the best of the Blue heifers from Cowling’s Martyn Jennings making £380. Continental calves sold to an overall average of £344.81

Of the native youngsters, Chris and Margie Hall, of Huddersfield, Arthington’s David Lawson and David Smith, of Brimham Rocks, all saw strong prices for their Aberdeen-Angus bull calves, which averaged £245 and topped at £300 for one from the Halls. The overall section average was £218, while black and white calves averaged £59.29, peaking at £105 for a bull calf, again from the Pickesrgills
ENDS

Best of the rest
The best trade of the season to date was seen for the 3,050 old season lambs on offer at Skipton’s weekly Monday prime cattle sale on February 12, with an average of 211p/kg, or just over £90 per head. All classes were significantly dearer on the week, with 122 pens selling for three-figure prices. Top calls of £126 per head and 312.5p/kg fell to Beltex pens from Paul Simpson, of Bolton-by-Bowland. Of the 230 cast sheep penned for sale, cull ewes averaged £73.75 and cast rams £77.

The same day’s prime cattle sale saw five of the 17 under 30-month clean cattle fall to Alan Beecroft, of Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop in Lancaster. Among them were the highest priced per kilo steer and heifer, the former a 535kg British Blue-cross from the Critchley family in Hutton at 258.5p, the latter a 595kg Blue-cross from James Drake, of Denholme, at 255.5p. Top gross was a 595kg Blue-cross heifer from D&FJ Leeming, of Ramsgill, sold to Keelham Farm Shop, of Skipton and Thornton, for £1,508 or 253.5p. Cull cows, 30 in number, again saw an upward trend when trading to an overall average of £773.22, or a shade over 114p/kg.