Familiar faces to the fore at Skipton Spring young bull showcase Two prolific prize winners in the show cattle arena at Skipton Auction Mart were again to the fore when landing the class-winning red rosettes at the mart’s annual Spring show and sale of young feeding bulls. (Wed, March 18) Yorkshire Dales farmers John and Gill Huck, and their son James, of Church Farm, Hubberholme, were responsible for the first prize ten-months or under bull, a home-bred British Blue-cross by their main stock bull, the Irish-bred Droit Dexter, out of a three-quarters Blue cow.

Breeding Sheep (221 Head) A larger show of Ewes with Lambs at foot sold away nicely. Anything with strong lambs were very much in favour, a few pens of ewes with younger sold to a mixed trade offering buyers a little more value for money.

81 Rearing Calves. Rearing Calves to £710 (81) B&W av £81 Cont av £413 Native av £260.5 A fantastic show of rearing calves today with a top quality entry from all supporters. The top honours of the day went to a suckler bred calf from Phillip Summers, Clayton which rocketed to a new auction record of £710. The day was full of other high prices with Shaun & Peter Sowray taking the next top with a Limousin Bull peaking at £630. Other vendors such as Fred Houseman and John Marshall of Monk Ing had some strong runs with an average of £434 for British Blue Bulls. Strong prices were also received for Aberdeen Angus calves with bulls averaging £251 and Heifers averaging to £268. Credit to all the entered and congratulations to the prize winners.

MARKET REPORT – MONDAY 16th MARCH 2015. Forward: 24 Prime cattle comprising 1 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 1 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 22 Cast Cattle. 4,096 Prime Sheep comprising 3,667 Prime & Lightweight Hoggs, 403 Cast Ewes & 26 Cast Rams. 221 Breeding Sheep. 81 Rearing Calves. 16 Loads of produce. The largest show of hoggs this season as some of the large feeders really get into gear and sheep arriving from a very large area, with Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and even Buckinghamshire all sending representatives!!

New auction record in fantastic rearing calf show at Skipton In a fantastic show of rearing calves, Phillip Summers set a new auction record price when selling his champion for £710 at Skipton Auction Mart this week. (MON, MARCH 16) Mr Summers, of Clayton, Bradford, had never won the calf championship at Skipton before. His six-week-old British Blue bull, a suckler-bred calf out of a pedigree Limousin cow and by a Genus bull, emerged as champion at the Spring Calf show, before selling for the new top price record to regular buyers Vickers & Richardson, of Scarborough.

CRAVEN PREMIER POULTRY Spring Show & Sale Best Pen of Bantams 1st B Metcalfe 2nd JH&K Dewhurst 3rd AP Leetham Best Pen of Large Fowl 1st EW Boothman 2nd J Robinson 3rd HJ Walmsley Best Waterfowl 1st EL Bailey 2nd D Pownall 3rd EL Bailey Champion – EW Boothman Reserve – EL Bailey

Forward – 150 head Cattle - comp: 70 Steers, 37 Heifers, 31 Bulls and 12 Breeding cattle; 14 Goats; Another busy Monthly Livestock Sale at Skipton as the Stirk and Weaned calf section goes from strength to strength. Plenty of interest in all classes of cattle with 45 separate vendors and purchasers successful on the day.

Forward – 150 head Cattle; 19 Goats; 235 lots of Poultry & Equipment; 114 lots of Furniture; 503 lots of reclaim/salvage & 516 lots of Machinery; Another busy Monthly Livestock Sale at Skipton as the Stirk and Weaned calf section goes from strength to strength. Plenty of interest in all classes of cattle with 45 separate vendors and purchasers successful on the day. The machinery and reclaim sections were well supported and some good prices seen, especially for seasonal items of sheep related implements, pennage and feeders. The Craven Premier Poultry Auction had a top price of £100 for a trio of White Wyandottes from David Pownall.

70 Rearing Calves & 26 Dairy Cattle..... Craven Dairy Auction (28 head) A quality show of dairy cows with very few second quality goods, a run of Heifers and Cows from the Calvert Family of Crathorne were the pick of the bunch. Prices were straight for honest milkers but sky high prices but the 2nd Calver from the Calvert family was particularly impressive reaching a modest £1880 and heading to John Howard of Heslaker. Other Vendors such as Richard Walker of East Morton reaching £1750 and Duncan and Gary Robinson of Low Birks at £1700 having good trades for quality cattle.

Forward: 50 Prime cattle comprising 5 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 3 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 42 Cast Cattle 3,258 Prime Sheep comprising 2,854 Prime & Lightweight Hoggs and 362 Cast Ewes & 42 Rams 135 Ewes and Lambs at foot 70 Rearing Calves 26 Dairy Cattle 12 Loads of produce

135 Ewes and Lambs at Foot An Increased entry for the weekly sale attracted a large crowd of buyers to compete for a very nice entry. Sheep with strong lambs was the order of the day with the equivalent of £65-£75 for twins and £80-£95 per life for single. Commercial types of sheep with singles £65-£75 Per Life and twins £50-£60 Per Life. Average for the whole sale was £173.42 per family (£68.82) per life.

Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle Forward: 599 head of cattle (Comprising: 255 Young Feeding Bulls, 324 Bullocks & Heifers, 2 Feeding Cows & 18 Breeding Cattle) A mixed entry of feeding bulls as vendors clear sheds for lambing time which gave a high percentage of hard long keep types forward. Continental x young bulls met the usual ready trade selling to an increased number of buyers but plenty of choice at the lower end enabled buyers to be more selective. In the Store Cattle section there were some nice runs of strong sorts which sold away well. Plenty of interest in yearling cattle and younger sorts with buyers now appearing at the ring side looking to start to put together summering cattle, with Ted Walker of Barden selling 12 month Charolais Bullocks to £1295.

CCM Auctions (Skipton) conducted a farm dispersal sale at Beechwood House Farm, Newton Le Willows, Bedale upon instructions of Messrs AM&HV Brown. The sale comprised of 61 head of Store Cattle & 134 General Lots including Tractor, Livestock Lorry and a range of machinery and implements from a mixed livestock farm.

Forward: 48 Prime cattle comprising 10 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 2 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 36 Cast Cattle 3,580 Prime Sheep comprising 3,391 Prime & Lightweight Hoggs, 178 Cast Ewes, 10 Rams & 1 Goat. 55 Rearing Calves 18 Loads of produce

Brian Lund double at Skipton prime cattle showcase A pair of home-bred Limousin-cross heifers from Calderdale’s Brian Lund secured championship and reserve championship honours at Skipton Auction Mart’s March prime cattle show and sale. (Mon, March 2) Mr Lund, who farms 350 acres of hill land at Walshaw Farm, Hebden Bridge, clinched the latest in a long line of successes at Skipton with a pair of home-bred Limousin-cross heifers by his well regarded stock bull Bo, who was bred in neighbouring Kirklees by Almondbury’s Janet Sheard and has also been responsible for quite a number of the vendor’s past Skipton champions.