Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle Forward: 751 head of cattle Comprising: 191 Young Feeding Bulls, 476 Bullocks & Heifers, 8 Breeding Cattle & 76 Pedigree Limousins Another fantastic entry of 667 Store Cattle & Young Bulls were forward for sale today and numbers show no sign of easing off yet, and this continues to draw a large crowd of buyers to each sale from across the North, Midlands and Eastern Counties.

The Tomschoice herd of Jamie & Sarah Cooper of Dacre headed up the prices at the Craven Limousin Day with their Senior Bull ‘Warrenderpark Geronimo’ who was on sale because of the return of his sire Kaprico Eravelle who had been at stud. With his sire scoring in the top 1% of the breed for calving and short gestation, the 2011 born Geronimo met spirited bidding to finally find a new home with Chris Metcalfe of Healaugh for 5,400gns.

Geronimo chief price performer at Skipton pedigree Limousin highlight First time exhibitor lands supreme championship The Tomschoice pedigree Limousin herd of James and Sarah Cooper, based at Hill Top Farm, Dacre, Harrogate, secured top price honours at 5,400gns (£5,670) with a well-proven senior bull on Craven Limousin Day, Skipton Auction Mart’s prestigious annual Spring show and sale of pedigree Limousin bulls and females. (Wed, May 13)

Northern Limousin Extravaganza... A great show of cattle was presented for showing. Pedigree Champion - JM&SM Priestley & Reserve - Barker Farming Partnership. Commercial Champion - NE Slack & Reserve M Harryman & S Warriner. Overall Supreme Champion - NE Slack & Overall Reserve Champion - JM&SM Priestley. Full report and pictures to follow...

Volcano commercial daughter on fire at Northern Limousin Extravaganza An 11-month-old Limousin-sired commercial heifer from Cumbrian breeder Neil Slack outshone her pedigree counterparts to clinch the supreme championship at the 2015 Northern Limousin Extravaganza (NLE) at Skipton Auction Mart. (Tues, May 12) Mr Slack, of Plumtree House, Newby, near Penrith, saw his first prize heifer and commercial champion, named Elsa, progress to land leading honours, pipping the pedigree champion, a bull from fellow Cumbrian breeders, the Priestley family, from Kirkambeck, Brampton

Forward: 63 Prime cattle comprising 2 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 1 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 60 Cast Cattle. 2,547 TOTAL SHEEP Inc: 1,482 Prime Sheep comprising 138 Spring Lambs, 1050 Hoggs, 294 Cast Ewes & Rams. 1,065 Breeding Sheep. 46 Rearing Calves. 23 Dairy Cattle. 5 Loads of produce.

Rearing Calves to £515 B&W av £82 Cont av £355.58 Native av £165 Calves were once again good to sell with all calves selling to a strong trade with continentals and natives looking cheap on paper, however for what they were the trade was strong. A Strong limousin Suckler bred calf sold to the top price of £515 from Messrs Worthington, Ramsbottom. SKIPTON MAY CALF SHOW NEXT WEEK 18th May

Breeding Sheep (1,065 Head) Another good strong entry of 1,065 head comprising 430 Sheep with 625 Lambs at foot and 5 Geld Hoggs. A bit of a two tier system this week, older sheep good to sell, especially those with strong lambs, but younger sheep and hoggs with lambs at foot were harder to cash than recent weeks. As usual please let us have entries by 12noon on Friday for inclusion in the weekly online catalogue.

Calvert cow champion again at Craven Dairy Auction Top price falls to first-time exhibitors The Calvert dairy farming family from Teesside added another Craven Dairy Auction championship to their tally, as they continued the dispersal of their Calton pedigree Holstein herd at Skipton Auction Mart. At the opening May dairy show and sale (Mon, May 11), husband and wife, Mark and Karen Calvert, of Glebe Farm, Crathorne, Yarm, landed the overall title with their first prize newly calven cow, the five-year-old Calton Dragon Cherry, a fourth lactation embryo daughter of the Genus sire, Overside Dragon.

Skipton’s Stapleton leads the pack in annual breeding sheep show and sale Skipton Auction Mart was bustling on the May Day bank holiday once again with the annual sale of breeding sheep added to the mix. There was a strong turnout of 2,209 hoggs and lambs and geld gimmer hoggs, slightly down on the previous year’s record entry. Skipton’s John Stapleton was again leader of the pack as in previous years, taking first prize with a pen of 10 Continental geld gimmer hoggs and first and second prize for two pens of Continental hoggs and lambs.

Forward: 23 Prime cattle comprising 7 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 3 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 13 Cast Cattle 3,693 TOTAL SHEEP comprising: 1,484 Prime Sheep comprising 197 Spring Lambs, 1160 Prime Hoggs, 119 Cast Ewes & 8 Rams 2,209 Breeding Sheep 51 Rearing Calves 5 Loads of produce

Breeding Sheep (2,209 Head) Incorporated into today’s sale was the Annual Show & Sale of Geld Gimmer Hoggs and Hoggs with Lambs at foot attracting a total entry of 2,209 head comprising 569 Geld Hoggs and 728 Sheep with 912 Lambs at foot. Buyers were a little more cautious than of late, but still the strong outfits of Mule and Continental Hoggs with lambs at foot were good to sell, John Stapletons homebred Texel Hoggs with Beltex lambs at £290 were the sale leaders and his run created an enormous amount of interest. David Coates’s champion pen of Mule Hoggs led that section at £255 per outfits whilst Robert Johnson had a run of 150 Mule Hoggs with lambs and they sold away to a top of £240 per outfit. Several good runs of hoggs with lambs already entered for next weeks sale which will be at the usual time of 11:30am in The Lingfield Sale ring. Please let us have entries by 12noon on Friday for inclusion in the weekly online catalogue.

Skipton’s May primestock shows attract strong prices A first-time prime cattle exhibitor claimed the May show championship at Skipton Auction Mart. (Mon, May 4) Bill Cowperthwaite, of Tennant Gill Farm, Malham Moor, was awarded the honour for his 630kg pure-bred Limousin steer, got by a bull bought from Proctors Farm in Slaidburn. The supreme champion was sold to Phillip Gregory, of D&A Gregory & Sons Butchers in St James Street, Bacup, for 230.5p/kg, or £1,452.

Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle Forward: 835 head of cattle Comprising: 203 Young Feeding Bulls, 608 Bullocks & Heifers, 7 Feeding Cows, 8 Pedigree Cattle & 9 Breeding Cattle. Today’s sale capped a great week for store cattle numbers at Skipton with nearly 1100 head traded between Saturday’s Monthly Stirk Sale and today’s regular fortnightly Wednesday sale. A wonderful show of both short keep and grazing cattle attracted a packed ringside of customers. With one eye on the prime trade some customers were understandably cautious before the sale, but generally trade would be stronger than most anticipated. Grazing Bullocks and heifers were the trade of the day, with buyers keen to secure cattle from such a large show and whilst they were there in front of them.

Blue Wednesday – Pedigree British Blues. Forward 8 head: 7 Bulls & 1 Female. Judge – Sheila Mason Champion - JC Walker & Son Lot 9 selling for 3,900gns to DP Moore Reserve - MJ&RH Wallbank Lot 3 selling for 3,300gns to J&G Huck