Critchleys sell, Countrystyle buy latest Skipton prime cattle champion
Skipton Auction Mart’s June prime cattle show and sale produced an outstanding and quality turnout of 30 under 30-month entries, the majority high-end retail types which were again keenly sought after by both leading butchers and farm shops from across the region. (Mon, June 3)
Picking up their first championship win of 2019 and following up on many in the past were mart regulars, the Critchley beef farming family, from Hutton, near Preston, with a 510kg Limousin-cross heifer claimed by another frequent buyer, Alan Beecroft, of Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop & Restaurant in Lancaster, for the leading by-weight price of 268.5p/kg, or £1,369.
Countrystyle was the principal buyer this week with an eight-strong tally, among them another red rosette winner from the Critchley pen, the first prize steer, a 550kg Limousin-cross which made 238.5p/kg, or £1,312. Both Critchley cattle were acquired in March and further improved on the farm.
Standing reserve champion was the second prize heifer from Silsden Moor’s Simon Bennett. This, too, was a Limousin-cross, weighing in at 535kg and home-bred to a Gunnerfleet sire. It fell for £1,362, or 254.5p/kg, to the show judge, retail butcher William Rathmell, manager of Brayton Farm Shop in Selby, where meat from the overall reserve will be sold over the retail counter after being dry-age matured for 28 days.
Top gross price of £1,394, or 242.5p/kg, fell to a 575kg British Blue-cross heifer sold by Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching, which became one of six purchases by James Robertshaw, five for Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton, the other for his own Robertshaws Farm Shop in Thornton.
North Craven father and son, Francis and Andrew Smith, of Masongill, again chipped in with the top price per kilo heifer, a 525kg Limousin-cross, which also figured among Countrystyle’s buys at 249.5p/kg, or £1,309.
Claiming four cattle each were two other regular retail buyers, Simon Barker, of Stanforths Butchers in Skipton, and Paul Ellison, of Ellisons Butchers, Cullingworth, while George Cropper Jnr took home a brace across the border for his Sanderson’s Butchers in Baxenden.
The 21 cull cows penned for sale maintained recent solid trade when selling to an overall average of £758.07, or 111.52p/kg. A young MRI dairy from N&SA Fort in Silsden caught the eye at 151.5p/kg, or £909, while a run of four heavy black and white dairies from Angus Dean in Threhsfield also sold readily to a top of £899, with the same vendor also making £753 with a black and white mature bull.
Plain and steaking cows met a good trade, a few more beef-bred entries selling to highs of £941 and 128.5p/kg for two Salers from Beeston Hall Farms in Ripponden. Linton’s Thomas Boothman also made £891, or 118p/kg, with a Galloway.
