Barden Fawcetts claim CCM Skipton prime cattle victory
A ten-month-old heifer by a British Blue stock bull, Heather View Jack, out of a beef-cross Brown Swiss suckler cow, was crowned champion at Skipton Auction Mart’s April prime cattle show and sale, the annual Easter fixture. (Mon, April 1)
It was consigned by father and son, John and Joe Fawcett, of Dale Head Farm, Barden. Weighing in at 535kg, the victor sold for the day’s top per kilo price of 269.5p, or £1,442, to retail butcher George Cropper Jnr for his Sandersons Butchers shop in Manchester Road, Baxenden.
Top gross price of £1,484, or 251.5p/kg, fell to a 590kg Limousin-cross heifer sold by the Critchley family, of Hutton, Preston, who were also responsible for the second highest price per kilo entry, a 570kg British Blue-cross heifer at 258.5p, or £1,473. Both heifers had finished second and third in their show class and joined regular buyer, Alan Beecroft, of Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop & Restaurant in Lancaster Leisure Park, who claimed four cattle in total.
Show judge Ben Townsend, from Laneshawbridge, awarded the reserve championship to the first prize steer, a 515kg Limousin-cross from defending monthly champions, North Craven father and son hill farmers, Francis and Andrew Smith, of Lodge Farm, Masongill, near Ingleton. It sold for £1,290, or 250.5p/kg, to weekly buyer James Robertshaw, who purchased six cattle in all – four for Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton, the other two for his own Robertshaws Farm Shop in Thornton.
Silsden Moor’s Simon Bennett presented the second prize steer, a 540kg Limousin-cross sold for £1,374, or 254.5p/kg, with James Drake, of Denholme, chipping in with the third prize 590kg steer, another Limousin-cross sold for £1,336. The leading gross price £1,395 Blue-cross steer came from the Kitching family in Threshfield.
Other retail buyers of the 27 under 30-month clean cattle forward were Simon Barker, of Skipton-based Stanforths Butchers with four, among them the third prize steer, and Paul Ellison, of Ellisons Butchers in Cullingworth, who took home three.
Cast cattle trade is becoming stronger by the week and there was a respectable margin between the heavies and steaking cows. With buyers for all grades present, some leaving short of requirements, the overall selling average for the 28 cull cows on offer was £772.36, or 115p.kg.
Black and white dairy-breds averaged £766 per head, selling to highs of 121.5p/kg and £1,063 for respective entries from N&SA Fort, of Silsden, and Lothersdale’s Geoff and Margaret Booth.
A pen of TB-exempt Aberdeen-Angus cows from Skipton’s Geoff and Margaret Lawn sold to 129.5p/kg and £881 per head, while a mature Montbeliarde bull from SW&JE Ryder & Son, of Harrogate, hit 112.5p/kg, or £934.
The same morning’s weekly rearing calf sale attracted 43 head. The best bulls were a touch easier on the week, trading to a sale high of £375 for a British Blue-cross from Fred Houseman, of Church Farm Enterprises in Burton Leonard, with a respectable average of £323.64 for all Blue bulls. A nice run of Limousin bull calves from the Pickersgill family in Hawksworth sold to a top of £290.
Heifers were a good trade, Church Farm Enterprises again leading the way with a £350 Blue-cross. The overall Continental selling average was £306.64, while native entries averaged £184, peaking at £255 for an Angus bull calf from JC&DJ Marshall & Son in West End.
Black and white bull calves set a fair pace early in the sale, with some Friesian types from the Lee family in Lothersdale topping at £155 and £140, while a fleshy Holstein bull calf from Elslack’s CN&SA Harrison also did well at £130, with other handy calves in the £70 to £100 bracket. The section averaged £99.44.