Peter Baul brace champion and reserve at Craven Dairy Auction
A brace of newly calven heifers from Peter Baul’s Ravensgate pedigree herd in Bishop Thornton stood champion and reserve at Skipton Auction Mart’s latest Craven Dairy Auction show and sale. (Mon, May 27)
Mr Baul, who trades as M Baul & Partners, picked up his second title win of the year with his 11 days-calved, 30-litre and rising heifer, Ravensgate Pesky Heather 377, by the well regarded Genus sire, Welcome Armitage Pesky. She sold locally for £1,900 top call to the Hartley family in Beamsley.
The reserve champion, Ravensgate Whiterock Marigold 217, this one by a Cogent sire, Mars Whitelock, calved for 26 days and giving 32 litres, sold for £1,650 to Roger and Sam Naylor in Middleton, Ilkley.
The third prize newly calven heifer from South Stainley’s Robin Jennings, a 10 days-calved 32-litre commercial animal by the Genus bull, Fantasmic, made £1,750 to H Goodall & Sons in Tong, Bradford. Newly calven heifers averaged £1,775.
A couple of third calver cows from Ian Parkinson, of Barden, first and second in their show class, sold away nicely to a high of £1,500 to Roger and Sam Naylor, of Middleton, Ilkley. Newly calven cows averaged £1,425.
A run of strong in-calf heifers from Richard and David Verity, of Grewelthorpe, made a clean sweep of the prizes in their show class and all met a healthy trade, with an average of £1,456 for the five presented and a top price of £1,560.
The heifers, due June/July and in-calf to a named Aberdeen-Angus sire, found new homes with both the Naylor and Shuttleworth families, the latter based in Gargrave.
Show judge was Pete Dakin, of Bolton-by-Bowland, with National Milk Records again sponsoring.
Rearing calves sell to £415
The same morning’s weekly rearing calf sale attracted a 44-strong turnout, which met a nice trade throughout, with British Blue-crosses again leading the way on price when topping at £415 for a bull calf from regular vendor Joss Lancaster, of Horton-in-Craven, who also sold a second at £400.
A brace of Limousin-cross bull calves from Paul and Janet Bolland, of Airton, sold nicely to £360 and £350. Continental heifers, while not quite the quality of recent sales, still attracted plenty of bidders, the better end making from £290 to a top of £310, this for a Blue-cross from Mike Longster, of Fellbeck. The section produced an overall Continental-cross selling average of £327.41.
A good show of black and white calves also attracted plenty of interest, with Richard and Ann Wright, of Airton, leading the way on price with a fleshy Holstein at £140. The section average was £65.67.
A younger show of native calves saw a slower trade than previous weeks, with a lot of one week to fortnight-old youngsters selling at between £100 and £150, producing an overall average of £104.30. Top price was £155 for an Aberdeen-Angus heifer calf, again from the Wrights.