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PEDIGREE BREEDING CATTLE - WEDNESDAY 20TH FEBRUARY 2019

Siddall herd shines at Skipton beef breeding cattle show The Fletcher family’s Siddall pedigree Limousin herd stood champion at the annual early season show and sale of pedigree beef breeding cattle at Skipton Auction Mart. (Wed, Feb 20) Paul Fletcher, who farms with his wife, Tracey, and daughters, Charley, 19, and 12-year-old Bree, at Top O’Th Hill Farm, Birch, Heywood, claimed top spot with his home-bred March, 2017, bull, Siddall Nipper, by the family’s former stock bull, Icarus.




While the victor returned home, the Siddalls did find a buyer at 2,250gns for their third prize two-year-old Limousin bull, Siddall Novel, an embryo son of Raysonhall Treker, bred by Great Asby’s David Hill, out of Siddall Idele, the biggest cow in the 40-strong herd. It returned to Lancashire with Colne’s JW&JH Collinson.
Top price of 3,000gns fell to an un-haltered two-year-old Charolais bull, Laverock Minky, from W Richardson & Son, of Laverock Bridge, Kendal, who regularly consign both Limousin and Charolais high health cattle. It fell locally to James Foster, of Bolton Abbey.
Local breeders John and Claire Mason, who run the Oddacres pedigree Limousin herd in Embsay, also achieved 1,950gns with a cow and heifer calf outfit. The 2012-born dam, Oddacres Honeybun, is by Econome. The buyer was LJ Penter, of Litton.
The show, judged by Ian Grisedale, of Crooklands, Kendal, was staged alongside the annual Craven Champions store cattle with show potential highlight. Both formed part of Skipton’s fortnightly Wednesday store cattle sale, which attracted over 800 head, with the 238 young feeding bulls among them meeting another very satisfying trade.
Though bulls were generally smaller on the year, there was additional interest around the ring for high quality suckler-bred entries, with the heavier end of the premium bulls under 10 months comfortably selling  into the £1,100s, coupled with similar interest in the under 15 month buls, where £1,200 was the mark. 
In the store ring, plenty of strong cattle were on offer. Big, well-fleshed cattle commanded some strong prices, with Ned Simpson, of Heathfield, Pateley Bridge, one of the standout performers, with his bullocks peaking at £1,285, and John Greenhalgh, of Bashall Eaves, topping the strong heifer trade at £1,210.
Continentals were supplemented with a solid turnout of 123 native-sired cattle, which met a fierce trade, in particular Shorthorn bullocks from Will and Amy Gore Browne, of Silsden, which sold to £1,190.
 
Outside of the show classes, 13-18-month-old cattle were the pick of the trade, with all bullocks in this age bracket averaging £960 and heifers £925, peaking at £1,250 for a 16-month-old Limousin-cross heifer from CT&EM Hammond, of Dacre. Bullocks and heifers aged 18-30 months averaged £982 for both sections, with the latter notably strong in terms of quality.
A solid entry of feeding cows attracted an increased attendance of buyers and trade was brisk. Top end cows and OTM clean entries found levels at £1,100 to £1,200, with top price of £1,390 falling to a Limousin from Keighley’s Jan Feather. Twenty Limousin-sired cows in the entry averaged £939.