Smiths step up with second CCM Skipton prime cattle championship
North Craven father and son hill farmers, Francis and Andrew Smith, clinched their second prime cattle championship of the year at Skipton Auction Mart’s March show. (Mon, March 4)
After picking up their first-ever Skipton title win at this year’s opening show in January, the Smiths, of Lodge Farm, Masongill, above Ingleton, were on the mark again with an all-black 510kg Limousin-cross heifer bought in as a suckler and further improved on the farm, which sold for joint top per kilo price of 261.5p/kg, or £1,333, to weekly buyer Keelham Farm Shop.
The leading by-weight price was matched by the first prize steer and reserve champion, a 545kg British Blue-cross from Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching, which achieved a gross price of £1,425 when claimed by DA Gregory & Sons Butchers in Bacup.
The Critchley family, from Hutton, Preston, arrived with another strong pen, which produced the two leading gross prices - £1,461, or 258.5p/kg, for a 565kg Limousin-cross heifer selling to Paul Ellison, of Ellisons Butchers in Cullingworth, who bought three cattle in total, and £1,460, or 235.5p/kg, for a 620kg Limousin-cross steer, which also fell to Keelham buyer James Robertshaw, who was again the principal buyer with nine purchases for the Skipton and Thornton shops.
The customary high quality show of 22 under 30-month clean cattle again provided opportunities for both retail and wholesale buyers, with the former having plenty of choice among the lightweight entries. Trade was up on the week.
Show judge, Simon Barker, of Stanforths Butchers in Skipton, was also in action at the ringside, claiming two cattle. Another regular retail butcher buyer with three acquisitions was Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop & Restaurant in Lancaster.
All but one of the 22 cast cattle penned for sale were dairies, which again met a firmer trade on the week, with heavy well fleshed entries generally making 110-115p/kg and just the odd very lean cow below 90p, producing an overall selling average of £707.44 per head, or 100.35p/kg. Top per head call of £939 fell to a black and white from the Abbott brothers in Dacre.
Earlier in the day, 70 rearing calves met a mixed trade, selling to a high of £435 twice for a brace of British Blue-cross bulls from Joss Lancaster, of Horton-in-Craven. The better end of the Blue bulls was fiercely contested, the majority making £350-plus. A younger entry of heifer calves proved harder to sell, which was reflected in the overall Continental average of £277.
Of the native youngsters, Aberdeen-Angus bull calves met a healthy trade, averaging £210 and peaking at £255 for an entry from Broadley Farms in Azerley, Ripon. Here again, native heifers were less money, producing a section average of £158.46.
Black and whites returned on a better trade than the previous week, with the best bull calves selling to £165 for one from Alan and Susan Throup, of Silsden Moor. The section average was £75.