The couple, who farm with their daughter Annabel at Oddacres Farm, did the business with Oddacres Osmond, a September, 2018, son of Procters Major, himself by the Rossingnol son, Haltcliffe Doctor. Out of the home-bred Homebryres Dixon daughter, Oddacres Gazelle, and described by his breeders as an outstanding calf from birth and likely the pick of this year’s Oddacres bulls, Osmond fell to the Towler family in Grindleton for their Limousin suckler herd.

The Masons also hit £3,600 with a second 2018 bull, Oddacres Opus, another well-bred October-born son of Procters Major and, like the top price performer, among his first crop of calves - he was purchased from Procters Farm, Slaidburn, in October 2017 for 9,000gns. Out of the Ducasse daughter Hermine, Opus’s online buyers were Wharfedale father and son, Bernard and Charles Greaves, of Norwood, Otley.

In addition, Oddacres successfully sold a further three 2019-born pedigree Limousin bulls at £2,600, £2,500 and £2,400. They were, in this price order:
• Oddacres Prince, another Procters Major son, out of Oddacres Limelight, a Gallois daughter from the Sapho family, to C Ellwood & Son, of Selby.
• Oddacres Parker, by Linzo, who also sired the 10,000gns Oddacres Oswald, a new Skipton breed record price 12 months ago at the annual Limousin highlight, out of Oddacres Lady, a full sister to Otto, reserve supreme champion at the same fixture. Parker sold locally to Litton farming brothers Stuart and Stephen Lund.
• Oddacres Peter, a Nagui son, out of the Eureka daughter, Odccares Marika, to East Hunton Farm, Bridlington.

The two-day fixture provided an innovative platform to ensure that both vendors and buyers alike were still able to trade in pedigree livestock, for which live shows and sales remain suspended. One was for 55 pedigree Limousin cattle, the other a multi-breeds auction of 24 beef breeding cattle, with entries received from across the north and midlands. The sale also produced a number of new first-time Skipton buyers.

Taking second top call at £4,250 was another Limousin, Tomschoice Prayer, a 16-month-old pedigree bull and the sole entry from James and Sarah Cooper’s well-known herd at Hill Top Farm, Dacre, Harrogate. By Haltcliffe Vermount, himself by the Ronick Hawk son, Penyrheol Sam, out of a home-bred Sypma daughter, Prayer found pastures new in Derbyshire’s Hope Valley with J Simpson.

Third top price of £4,000 and top call in the multi-breeds sale fell to a June, 2018, British Blue bull from the North Craven-based Greystone pedigree herd run by brothers Alan and Graham Coates at Rainscar Farm, Stainforth.

Greystone Nimbus, by the Drybarrows Cawdale son, Almeley Gionola, out of a home-bred Greystone Emeralde daughter, is an all-white bull whose brothers have been exported to Denmark for pure breeding and have also sold to 9,500gns, with a full sister retained in the herd. Nimbus found a new home way down south in Somerset with Shepton Mallet’s HC&D Perkins.

The Coates brothers also made £3,200 with Greystone Nautical, a further June, 2018, British Blue bull again by Almeley Gionola, out of an Adagio De Stordeur-sired daughter. Nautical sailed north of the border when claimed by HE Duncan & Son, of West Calder in West Lothian.

From Cumbria, the Priestley family’s Brontemoor Limousin herd in Kirkcambeck made its mark with a £3,500 sale of the home-bred bull, Brontemoor Pacman, a January, 2019, son of Lodge Hamlet, himself by the Jacot son, Saphir. Out of a Garrowby Hurricane-sired daughter, Pacman was claimed by J Browell & Son, of Hexham.

The three-generation Priestleys - Michael, his son Steven, wife Ruth and their children, Richard and Sarah – also achieved £3,300 with a second home-bred and slightly younger bull, the February, 2019-born Brontemoor Pedro, by Trueman Idol, an Ampertaine Elgin son. Out of another Garrowby Hurricane daughter, Pedro joined TFC Robinson in Newcastle.

Also from Cumbria. Craig Ridley, who runs the Haltcliffe pedigree Limousin herd in Hesket-new-Market, Wigton, claimed £3,300 with Haltcliffe Oslo, by Haltcliffe Vermount out of a Cloughhead Umpire cow. He found pastures new in Lincolnshire with Grantham’s MD Copley.

Two more bulls - one a Limousin, the other a British Blue - each made £3,200. The former came from Paul Blenkhorn’s Elderberry pedigree herd in Willitoft, Goole. Elderberry Oscar, an October, 2018, son of Jupiter, was claimed by Goodall Farming, of Holme on Spalding Moor, near York. Mr Blenkhorn - he trades as E Blenkhorn & Son - also sold another Jupiter son, the May, 2018, Elderberry Onyx for £2,800 to MG Mosley & Sons in Sheffield.

The £3,200 Blue was consigned by Lake District breeder Dean Saunders, of the Maidenlands herd in Ulverston. His May, 2018, Maidenlands Nation, by a home-bred bull out of a Ridge Dean Dallas daughter, Maidenlands Koko Chanel, shown successfully when winning first prize at the Great Yorkshire Show, fell to David Robinson, of Hexham.

Hitting £3,000 was a July, 2018, bull from the Whalley family’s Jaygar herd in Newton-In-Bowland. Jaygar Notus, by Almeley Gilchrist, out of a Bringlee Waldo dam, joined FM Shepherd & Son in Pateley Bridge. Six other bulls sold from £2,000 up to £2.800

Heading the female prices at £3,600 was a three-year-old Limousin from Craig Schofield’s Cheadlewood pedigree herd in Cheadle, Cheshire. With breeding going back to Objat Cheadlewood Natalie, by the Lowerffrydd Empire son, Caherhurley Iching, out of the Mas Du Clo daughter, Roundhill Cjoconde, was sold with her three-month-old heifer calf at foot, the duo joining local buyer James Penter in Litton.

From Lincolnshire, Ian Brown, of the Lowgate Limousin herd in Holbeach, successfully sold five pedigree females all at four-figure prices and to a top of £2,400, the second highest price among the ladies, for Lowgate Odell , a May, 2018, daughter of Goldies Landscape.

The smart heifer, who was AI’d to Tweedale Lennox last month, sold to Mark Crabtree, of Kettlesing. Mr Brown also made £2,800 with a December, 2018, bull, Lowgate Oscar, again by Goldies Landscape, claimed by Jonathan Medcalf, of Sicklinghall, Wetherby