29 Rearing Calves to £385 B&W av £80.27 Cont av £337.5 Native av £195 A small show with only 29 landing on the dock with arguably the weather and the ensuing Calf Show being the major factors for such a small show. Fred Houseman yet again topped the trade with a highly sought after blue heifer reaching £385. Blue bulls didn’t top so high but averaged a healthy £357.5 however a tremendous Friesian calf from John Wright of Kirk Syke, Airton which sold for £230.

Rearing Calves to £540 (40) B&W av £116.75 Cont av £398.96 Native av £236.6 Superb trade for the calves that turned up today with Graham Hayton of Bolton Abbey topping the day with his 10 week calf at £540 with Shaun Sowray the next best at £480. Any amount of calves over £400 today with GT Booth, S&PE Bowker, Church Farm Enterprises, A Sowray & Son, Hayton & Stocks all receiving above the £400 today.

Craven Dairy Auction (24 head) Just as the gate opened for the first milker to enter the ring Arla’s text message announcement of a 1ppl price reduction started beeping around the ringside. Despite the impeccable timing of the “good news” trade was brisk with all heifers selling away well with arguably the lower end of the milkers seeing the highest price jump. Brian Moorhouse of the Aireburn herd took the top honours in the milkers for his newly calven pedigree heifer consignment with the highly sought after Samantha Sugden choosing her above D&A Forts Homebred newly calven heifer with Sally Wellock of Oakworth taking a well deserved 3rd prize.

Craven Dairy Auction (29 head) A two sided trade today with the better end of the milkers selling particularly well with 9 better quality milkers averaging a healthy £1315, a sizeable lift from the lows we saw last fortnight. The top price heifer of the day went to the Reserve Champion heifer entered by Samantha Sugden of Laycock, her homebred daughter of Bassingthorpe Bossman was giving 33kgs and only a fortnight calved and went on to sell for £1570 to Wick Williams of Cheshire. The champion from Jennings Farmers, Fountains a heifer from the Lawrie Shiek family giving 32 kgs and 15 days calved went on to sell at £1380 to Brian Blezard Ribchester.

Abbeyhouse herd lands first Craven Dairy Auction title of 2016 Andrew Jennings, who runs the Abbeyhouse pedigree dairy herd at Hill House, Fountains, near Ripon, won his first Craven Dairy Auction championship of 2016 at the opening May show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart. (Mon, May 9) Andrew, who trades as Jennings Farmers, lifted the title with his first prize newly calven heifer, Abbeyhouse Stan Laurina, from the famed Laurie Shiek family, which has produced several Comestar proven bulls in Canada.

Craven Dairy Auction (30 head) A testing day for all with the milk price once again being reduced at the end of last week has had a clear knock on effect to the trade received by vendors today despite a quality show of in milk heifers and cows on offer. Brian Moorhouse of Bell Busk was tasked with the judging job today and picked out one of David Lawson’s well bred pedigree heifers which was a month calved and giving 31kg went on to sell for a sale high of £1380. Robin Jennings of South Stainley, Harrogate sold his reserve champion heifer for £1250 with another of his entries a 31kg Stainbank heifer bred by Micheleaob went on to sell for £1350.

Craven Dairy Auction (20 head) Judge Brian Blezard chose David Lawson’ s pair of strong heifers as his champion and reserve with another of his quartet taking the third prize rosette which is no mean feat. The trade was certainly not as brisk as previous weeks for the middle of the road goods with many around and below the £1000 mark however the top end made up for this with 1st rate heifers averaging well into £1400’s.

Rearing Calves to £405 (50) B&W av £84.04 Cont av £327.49 Native av £350 Another fresh face for Black and Whites today with the predominantly Holstein bred calves receiving a strong trade to average £84.04 and top at £120 on 3 occasions, 1 of those from Johny Moon, Wigglesworth and 2 from Paul and Janet Bolland of Airton. Blue bulls again set the pace with Martyn Jennings hitting £405 with a sweet bull taking the average to £368.30. David Brown saw a roaring trade again for his Lincoln Red sired calves averaging £350 for the only native entries of the day. NB: Once again our calves averaged 38 days of age and still a strong trade.

Rearing Calves to £435 x 2 (64) B&W av £102.5 Cont av £326 Native av £217.2 Bank holiday fails to disappoint once again with a strong trade throughout the sale. John Marshall, Dacre and Alan from Hartley’s, Bolton Abbey tied for the top price with two British Blue calves which were bid all the way to £435 each. Herefords and Angus’s were all well bid at with Richard Spence, Sutton In Craven topping the Herefords with a stonking calf at £330 and John Dodgson, Bank Newton topping the Angus section at £280. Black and whites were up on the week despite last weeks searing trade averaging £102.5 today with the top at £165 for a Friesian Bull from Stephen Marshall, West End with 10 over £100 and the bottom at an impressive £48.

Lawsons on the mark at Craven Dairy Auction The Lawson family’s Newbirks pedigree dairy herd clinched its first championship success of 2016 at the March bank holiday Craven Dairy Auction show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart. (Monday, March 28) Father and daughter David and Suzy Lawson, of Mill Farm, Arthington, lifted the title with their first prize newly calven heifer, Newbirks Heliotrope 361, by the Italian-bred Genus sire, Zelgadis, out of Heliotrope 326. With four generations of VG Ex behind her, the victor, four weeks calved and giving 29 litres, sold for £1,580 to regular buyers Alf and Andrew Townsend, of Southfield, Burnley,

Rearing Calves to £780 (83) B&W av £85.30 Cont av £364.26 Native av £200.6 A superb show of continental calves met a searing trade with 10 calves over £400 and topping at a Skipton Record of £780 (that is is NOT a typo). The 37 day old British Blue bull from the Sowray Bros of Bishop Thornton was the Pre Sale Show Champion Judged by Samantha Asquith, Otley sold to Skipton Regular Show Supporter Lynne Vickers of Scarborough, who also went onto pick up the Reserve Champion at £620. The Mason family from Lincolnshire picked the second and third highest priced calves of the day again from the Sowray’s at £650 and £640.

Sowray calf sets new £780 record price at Skipton A new all-time high mart record price of £780 for a rearing calf was paid for the supreme champion at Skipton Auction Mart’s annual Spring show and sale. (Mon, March 21) It fell to the first prize British Blue-cross bull calf from the Sowray dairy farming family – brothers Shaun, Peter and Paul - from Bowes Green Farm, Bishop Thornton. By the Cogent sire, Dinmore Gaultier, which the Sowrays have only recently starting using, the 37-day-old title winner attracted spirited bidding at a packed ringside before joining Lynne Vickers, of Scarborough.

Craven Dairy Auction (27 head) All the signs this morning were for a dire trade with no one in the shippon until 5 minutes prior to the sale and miraculously turned into a better trade than the last two sales. Pre Sale show Champion from Peter Baul of Bishop Thornton calved 21 days and giving 32kgs went on to top the sale at £1780 with Robin Jennings taking the Reserve Champion Rosette with a heifer bred by the Late John Whittaker of Laneshawbridge and giving 33kgs at 18 days calved and sold for £1700. Incalf heifers were also a good trade with the 4 on offer averaging £1058 and selling to £1120 for a big strong heifer from David and Jill Pennock.

Rearing Calves to £400 (72) B&W av £92.21 Cont av £316.60 Native av £205.20 Those who responded to the call for calves went away very happy with all types a healthy trade and arguably no poor calves in the market. Limousin’s seemed to have found an extra gear today with Robert Metcalfe, Brearton topping with a pair of sweet heifers at £340 and Angus Dean £310 with a straight Limousin Bull. Black and White calves saw a marked increase today with an overall average of £92.21 for calves all under 8 ½ weeks. Attendance of spring rearers is a welcome sign to the ring side and a consistent run of calves is needed to keep them coming.

Craven Dairy Auction (16 head) A small entry today which was perhaps a blessing in disguise with a number of buyers present but few willing to bid freely and you cannot blame them. The pre sale Winner from Peter Baul, Bishop Thornton went on to top the day at £1660. Other noted prices was a fine 2nd calver from Forts of Glusburn reaching £1450 and £1350 for a hardy heifer from Keith Downs.