Owner David Green mounted a cross-border raid to Skipton Auction Mart at the end of November and fought off strong competition at the ringside from other leading retail butchers to claim the title winner at the North Yorkshire mart’s annual high profile Christmas prime cattle show.

However, he had to go to the day’s top price of £2,450 in order to secure the victor, a Limousin-cross heifer from Yorkshire Dales beef farmer, John Stephenson. In fact, Mr Green’s total spend on the day was not far short of £6,000, as he also supplemented his supreme champion with two further top-notch buys from regular local suppliers, the Critchley beef farming family, from Mercer Farm in nearby Hutton.

All three cattle have been fully matured to guarantee both taste and texture. They are now available for the Christmas trade in all the popular cuts – festive roasts and steaks among them -at K&J Green’s two shops in Withington Lane, Heskin, and Preston Road, Standish.

Fourth generation butcher Mr Green explained: “While it’s a major investment for us we’re more than happy to make the outlay, as our customers fully deserve the best dry-aged beef that money can buy at this special time of the year and after such a difficult year. 

“We like to buy locally wherever and whenever possible as we can guarantee both the quality and provenance of the beef, as well as helping keep food miles to a minimum. “We’ll also be selling it at our normal shop prices,” Mr Green was at pains to point out.

K&J Green Butchers has been in the same family for over a century, being established in Heskin in 1912 by David’s great grandfather Sidney,  then run by the founder’s two sons, Jimmy and Harry, then David’s father Ken, who, while now officially retired, still helps out on a regular basis.

The new shop in Standish was launched in September in direct response to the closure the previous year of what was then the community’s only butchers shop, Chadwick’s. “People started coming to us in Heskin to buy their meat, so we thought it would be a great idea to take the meat back to them! Our new shop has been welcomed with open arms and made an immediate impact,” said Mr Green.

After acquiring the former sandwich shop on the corner of Moores Lane he carried out a complete refit to provide a modern-day, but still traditional family-run butchers – and provide jobs for two Standish residents, manager Jeanette Chadwick, who previously worked at Chadwick’s Butchers, and Louise Saile.

All the prep work for both shops is carried out at Heskin in K&J Green Butchers’ in-house meat maturation and preparation unit.