Bell Busk Moorhouses retain Craven Dairy Auction Christmas championship
Husband and wife, Brian and Judith Moorhouse, who run the prolific Aireburn pedigree Holstein herd at Hesper Farm, Bell Busk, bagged the Christmas Craven Dairy Auction supreme championship for the second year running at Skipton Auction Mart. (Monday, Dec 2)
The Moorhouses, multiple champions and prize winners with dairy cattle at their local mart, retained the festive title with Aireburn Saloon Sher, a first calving daughter of the Semex sire, Sandy Valley Saloon, bred from the EX90 Aireburn Shamrock Sher, herself a cow bred from eight generations of VG or EXC, having given close on 31,000 litres across three lactations.
Sold 14 days calved and giving 34 litres, the title winner made the day’s leading price of £2,500 - and joint top price all year- when joining Calderdale’s John Hitchen, of Crib Farm Dairies in Ludendenfoot. She should prove a valuable addition to the 200-strong herd of milkers, which comprises Shorthorn-cross-Friesian cows and continues to make doorstep deliveries of its milk.
Standing reserve champion was the second prize newly calven heifer from Robert Crisp, of Nelson Farm, Calton, with another daughter of the Genus sire, Seagull Bay MVP, also responsible for the previous dairy champion from the same home.
She sold14 days calved and giving 24 litres to ringside regular Brian Blezard, of Ribchester, for second top call of £2,250. A second same way bred Crisp newly calven heifer made £1,880.
Edward Fort, who runs the Silmoor pedigree herd at High Bracken Hall Farm on Silsden Moor and won his first-ever Craven Dairy Auction championship at the previous show, again chipped in with the third prize newly calven heifer, which made £1,850, also selling another at £1,820.
Milky heifers were in good demand, in the main making £1,700 to £1,950, though with several others hitting £2,000 and more, including, from the Moon family in Wigglesworth, a brace at £2,050, this falling to Andrew Townsend, of Southfield, Burnley, and £2,000, with another at £2,000 from Winterburn’s Mark Smith. A nice average of £1,851 for 15 newly calven heifers was achieved.
Ian Parkinson, from Barden, presented the only newly calven cow, a third calver which made £1,700.
The sale also included a consignment of maiden heifers from Peter Baul’s Ravensgate herd in Bishop Thornton, which made a clean sweep of the prizes in a standalone show class. They peaked at £1,050 twice, one of these for the red rosette winner, the May, 2018-born OCD Yoder Cinder daughter, Ravensgate Cinder Sparkle 308, falling to the Breare family on Silsden Moor.
Standing first and second in a show class for in-calf heifers were the Drake family, from Thornton, Bradford, their charges making £1,300 and £1,100.
The festive show was co-judged by Shaun Sowray, of Bishop Thornton, and Mike Longster, from Fellbeck, and sponsored by regular supporter National Milk Records, joined by NFU Mutual, Graham Shepherd Agri and Mulberry Farming Asset Finance. The final Craven Dairy Auction of the year is on Monday, December 16.