Blue Wednesday Judge – Rob Walker At 4,200gns Greystone Judge headed up the British Blue Fixture ‘Blue Wednesday’ at Craven Cattle Marts Ltd, Skipton. The 2014 homebred son of Greystone Hoover was shown by Messrs Coates of Rainscar and bred from easy calving lines found favour with Gargrave dairy farmer Colin Whitelock, who is a producer of high quality British Blue calves.

Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle Forward: 669 head of cattle Comprising: 168 Young Feeding Bulls, 451 Bullocks & Heifers, 1 Feeding Cows, 49 Breeding Cattle inc 14 Pedigree British Blue Bulls & 35 Beef Breeding Cattle At CCM Auctions fortnightly cattle sale there was a much sharper feel to the trade than earlier on in the spring. Short keep cattle caught the attention and were easier to sell than of late.

Forward: 84 Prime cattle comprising 9 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 4 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 71 Cast Cattle. 1,940 Prime Sheep comprising 141 Spring Lambs, 1,292 Prime Hoggs & Mature Hoggs, 507 Cast Ewes & Rams. 555 Breeding Sheep. 53 Rearing Calves. 30 Dairy Cattle. 4 Loads of produce.

555 Breeding Sheep (comprising 224 Sheep with 331 lambs at foot) Numbers exactly the same as last week but generally lambs on the ewes were stronger so prices looking a bit better too. A few more travelled buyers helping to fill up the ringside, and many were looking for young ewes or hoggs with lambs. Best today for Hoggs was Ian Manning of Wrexham with the first of his weekly consignments topping at £195, with others ranging from £150 to £190. Richard Caton of Stainforth and John Mawson of Elslack jointly topped the sale at £205 for Texel Ewes with Twins.

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.

CCM Auctions Conducted their Monthly Sale of Stirks, Weaned Calves and Young Store Cattle A good entry forward with a packed ringside of buyers with no less than 30 separate accounts represented. Good straight cattle were good to sell with the poorer sorts of cattle less money and a touch harder to place.

Forward: 62 Prime cattle comprising 14 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 2 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 46 Cast Cattle. 2,804 Sheep (comprising 24 Spring Lambs, 2,324 Prime & Lightweight Hoggs, 32 Mature Hoggs, 416 Cast Ewes & 8 Cast Rams) 613 Breeding Sheep. 52 Rearing Calves. 4 Loads of Produce.

613 Breeding Sheep (comprising 228 Sheep with 385 lambs at foot) A very similar entry to last week and trade fairly similar as well. More young sheep with lambs beginning to come forward now and offering good choice to farmers who want to increase find sheep to include in their flocks. Top of the shop this week was John Atkinson who sold a pair of Texel Ewes with 3 Beltex cross lambs for £240 the outfit.

Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle Forward: 511 head of cattle Comprising: 118 Young Feeding Bulls, 363 Bullocks & Heifers, 12 Feeding Cows & 18 Breeding Cattle A nice trade today at CCM Skipton with everything look sharper to sell than the previous sale, younger cattle especially and those for summering taking a nice rise.

67 Prime cattle comprising 12 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 1 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 54 Cast Cattle including 2 Mature Bulls. 2,775 Prime Sheep comprising 55 Spring Lambs, 2417 Prime Hoggs, 303 Cast Sheep (293 Cast Ewes & 10 Rams). 734 Breeding Sheep comprising 269 Sheep with 465 lambs at foot. 68 Rearing Calves B&W av £70.05 Cont av £336.45 Native av £182.5. 20 Dairy Cattle. 8 Loads of produce.

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.

734 Breeding Sheep (comprising 269 Sheep with 465 lambs at foot) A much larger entry sold away to a better trade this week with a good crowd of buyers assembled looking for sheep. Two pens shared the top price of £265 per outfit, the first were Texel cross Shearlings with Twins from David White at Hebden, and this was equalled by Rosie Dunn from York who consigned a pen of 2&3 crop Texels with strong lambs. General trade was £2 to £5 per life better on the week, but there was a smaller proportion of those outfits with young lambs as vendors look to bring strength.

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.

Breeding Sheep - 343 Head comp 129 Sheep with 214 lambs at foot. A smaller entry this week and probably a sharper trade with a few different buyers at the ringside looking to source stock. Young Ewes with strong lambs keenly bid for, topping at £225 for 2 shear Texel Ewes with Twins from Johny Metcalfe of Linton, whilst older outfits were £5 per life dearer on the week.

Forward: 78 Prime cattle comprising 19 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 4 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 55 Cast Cattle. 3,189 Prime Sheep comprising 60 Spring Lambs, 2805 Prime Hoggs, 324 Cast Ewes & Rams. 343 Breeding Sheep. 50 Rearing Calves. 11 Loads of produce.