A second 30kg heifer from the same home, the 28 days-calved Ravengsate Buck Heather 355, by Chuckledale Big Bucks, also sold well at £1.480 to brothers Stephen and Malcolm Abbott, from Dacre.
 
Defending champion Mark Smith, of the Brackenlea commercial herd at Rookery Farm in Winterburn, was again to the fore with the second prize and reserve champion newly calven 28kg heifer.
 
His19 days-calved Brackenlea Snowy Iris was by Aireburn Snowy, bred locally by Bell Busk’s Brian and Judith Moorhouse and also responsible for Mr Smith’s two previous dairy champions this year.
 
The milk-rich dam, Brackenlea Iris 66, had given 10,500 litres over her latest fourth and fifth lactations and remains in milk. Her daughter sold for £1,950 to regular buyer Mark Goodall, from Tong, Bradford.
 
The same price also fell to the first prize newly calven cow from Barden’s Ian Parkinson. The second calver remained in the area when claimed by the Hartley family in Beamsley.
 
Standing third in the heifer show class were the Robinson family from Eldroth, their charge selling at £1.850, again to the judge, while the second prize newly calven cow from Cumbrian dairy farmer Wilson Stewart’s Straidahanna pedigree herd at Low Hesket in the Eden Valley made £1,250 when joining David Calvert in West Marton.
 
Of the 17 head on offer, newly calven heifers averaged £1,458.75 and newly calven cows £1,575.
 
Black and whites catch eye in calf ring
The same morning’s weekly rearing calf sale produced a straight trade for the 87-strong entry, with black and whites the eye-catchers, as 30 bull calves averaged a shade over £86 per head, topping at £185 for a cracking Friesian presented by John and Rob Marshall, of Dacre, with Richard Spence, of Sutton-in-Craven, next in line at £140.
 
Flekvieh dairy bulls from Chris Watson, of Horton-in-Craven, also sold well at between £150 and £155, with black and whites averaging a robust £95.48 per head overall.
 
Native bulls again found some stiff competition, with the pick of the entry, Aberdeen-Angus calves from from Paul and Janet Bolland, of Airton, topping at £320 and averaging £280. The overall section average was £201.36.
 
While Continental-cross calves were not quite as strong on price as of late, the best bulls again sold well from £360 to a day’s high of £405 for a British Blue-cross from the Hartley family in Beamsley. Middle of the road bull calves made £250 - £320.
 
Continental heifer calves sold to a top of £370 for another Blue-cross from Church Farm Enterprises in Burton Leonard, with the section producing an overall selling average of £262.50 per head.