John Fawcett prime cattle champion tops Skipton selling prices
John Fawcett, of Dale Head Farm, Barden, stood champion with a home-bred British Blue cross heifer at Skipton Auction Mart’s August prime cattle show and sale. (Mon, Aug 5)
His 530kg victor, by the well utilised stock bull, ‘Jack,’ topped both the by-weight and gross prices when claimed for 276.5p/kg, or £1,466, by George Cropper Jnr on behalf of his Sandersons Butchers shop in Baxenden. Mr Fawcett was also responsible for the third prize heifer, another Blue-cross weighing 555kg, which fell for £1,440, or 259.5p/kg.
Independent retail butchers were again out in force at the ringside competing for the 19 under 30-month clean cattle on parade, a clear indication that demand for high quality beef is as strong as ever both on the High Street and in farm shops.
Weekly buyer Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton stepped in to secure two, one of which was the reserve champion, the second prize heifer, a 575kg Limousin-cross from Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching. By a Skipton-bought animal bred by the Bulmer family in Wakefield, the overall runner-up made the day’s second highest gross price of £1,463, or 254.5p/kg.
The Kitchings also consigned the first prize steer, a 580kg Blue-cross sold for £1,366, or 253.5p/kg, to Skipton-based Stanforths Butchers. This, too, was by another bullock bought out of Skipton from regular vendor Peter Fox, of Clitheroe.
The best-selling steer per kilo at 239.5p/kg, or £1,305, was the second prize winner, a 545kg Limousin-cross from Malham Moor’s Bill Cowperthwaite, which also became one of three acquisitions by Stanforths.
Silsden Moor’s Simon Bennett stepped up with the third prize and top gross price steer, a 640kg Limousin-cross sold for £1,404, or 219.5p/kg, to retail butcher William Rathmell, manager of Brayton Farm Shop in Selby. The show classes were judged by Paul Baines, of Trawden.
