Moorhouse milker champion again at Craven Dairy Auction
The Aireburn pedigree herd of Bell Busk husband and wife dairy farmers Brian and Judith Moorhouse at Hesper Farm clinched another in a long line of Craven Dairy Auction championships at their local Skipton Auction Mart. (Monday, Sept 9)
They bagged their latest title with the first prize newly calven heifer, Aireburn Delegate Melissa, a 16 days calved 30 litre daughter of their home-bred stock bull, Delegate, whose offspring are now starting to come through. The victor made £2,000 top price when claimed by ringside regular Brian Blezard, of Ribchester.
Second top call of £1,900 fell to the Fort family on Silsden Moor with a 28 litre heifer knocked down to Mark Goodall, of Tong, Bradford.
Defending champion, Barden’s Ian Parkinson was again to the fore when presenting the reserve champion, the second prize newly calven heifer by the Genus sire Bossman, who was also responsible for Mr Parkinson’s August title winner. His latest eight days calved 25 litre frontrunner sold for £1,700, again to Mr Goodall.
The Dales dairy farmer, who is currently dispersing his commercial Holstein Friesian herd, also sent out the first and second prize newly calven cows. The 12 days calved 28 litre red rosette winner, a second calver by another Genus sire, ‘History,’ headed the section prices at £1,800 when joining the Hartley family in Beamsley, with the 14 days calved 30 litre runner-up, again by Bossman, sold for £1,450 to SM Liddle & Sons, of Huby.
Robin Jennings, of the Stainbank herd in South Stainley, Ripon, consigned the third prize newly calven heifer, which fell for £1,700 when becoming a further Goodall buy. The show was judged by Clifton’s Richard Crabtree.
A handy trade for the 14 head forward saw pedigree newly calven heifers average £1,952 and their commercial counterparts £1,760. Newly calven cows averaged £1,505, with newly calven Friesian heifers selling to £1,420 and in-calf heifers to £1,220.
The same morning’s weekly rearing calf sale attracted a solid 106 head and produced top prices of £370 for a Charolais-cross bull from David Smith, of Sutton-in-Craven, and £370 for a four-week-old British Blue bull from Horton-in-Craven’s Joss Lancaster. The overall Continental average was £260.42. Aberdeen-Angus bull calves sold well to average £238, with a top of £340 from John Smith in Carleton. The overall native average was £188.80, while black and whites averaged £45.22.
In the prime cattle ring, regular vendors and retail butcher buyers were again in attendance, when nine of the 14 under 30-month entries more made than £1,300, with ten selling at 235p/kg and above. Gross prices peaked at £1,425 and per kilo prices at 256.5p. An increased entry of 40 cull cows sold to an overall average of £628.91, or 93.28p/kg.
A total of 3,590 prime sheep was also penned for sale. Trade was, as expected, harder work and the 3,057 Spring lambs sold to an overall average of £73.64 per head, or 166.16p/kg. However, the overall selling average for 530 cull ewes was much improved at £58.36, up some £8 on the week.