The family, who buy in store cattle and then further improve them at home before selling on – they currently keep 70 Limousin and British Blue crosses – were also responsible for the third prize heifer, another Limousin-cross weighing 520kg, which sold for £1,349, or 259.5p/kg, to Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop in Lancaster. Both prizewinners had been bought at Skipton at the beginning of this year.

Reserve champion was the first prize 550kg Limousin-cross steer from Baldersby Park’s Malcolm Metcalfe, which was again sold to the judge for £1,371, or 247.5p/kg.  Keelham maintained its record as Skipton’s principal purchaser of under 30-month clean cattle when Mr Robertshaw claimed a total of 14 of the 29 cattle on offer for their two family-run shops in Skipton and Thornton

Also catching the eye at £1,422, or 249.5p/kg, was the second prize British Blue-cross heifer from EW&JR Parkinson, of Dunsop Bridge This also sold to Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop, who took home four in total.

Mr Metcalfe also presented the third prize Limousin-cross steer, sold for £1,361, or 247.5p/kg, with Carleton’s James Drake finishing runner-up in the same class with another Limousin-cross that made £1,359, or 236.5p/kg. Both were among Keelham’s buys.

Skipton-based Stanforths Butchers bought three cattle, while Charlie Clough claimed another for his Stainthorpe’s Family Butchers in Queensbury.

A larger entry of cast cattle comprised more fed cattle, with dairy entries comprising 41 of the 45 cows presented. Trade was firmer on the week, with top dairies touching 120p/kg, producing an overall cull cow average of £751.26 per head, or 110.62p/kg.

FA Holmes & Son, of Castley, headed the black and white gross prices at £992, while Roger Dakin, of Hellifield, topped by-weight with a 121.5p/kg sale. The pick of the beef-bred entries was a £1,026, or 143.5p/kg, Murray Grey from John and Judy Garnett in Draughton.

Burton Leonard prime lamb champion
Champion at the same day’s monthly prime hoggs show was Andrew Phillips, of Fir Tree Farm, Burton Leonard, with a pen of five 46kg Beltex-cross lambs which had earlier been bought out of Skipton as stores.

They headed the hogg prices at £145 per head, or 315.2p p/kg, when joining regular buyers Vivers Scotlamb in Annan, who also paid £107 each for the third prize Continental-cross pen from Kath Saffrey, of Halton West. Mr Phillips also sold furthers Beltex-cross pens at £125, £119 and £115 twice.

The first prize and reserve champion pen of Suffolk-cross hoggs from Newark’s Steve Dorey sold for £81 per head, or 185.7p/kg, to Dunbia Foods in Preston, who claimed four prize-winning pens in total.

Show lambs, judged by Dave Palmer, of Scarborough, were among a total prime sheep entry of over 3,000 head, which also comprised 28 Spring lambs.

These proved dearer on the week when levelling at £122.95 per head, or 271.80p/kg, with a by-weight top of 312.5p/kg for a pen of three 40g Charollais from Charles and Valerie Marwood, of Whenby, York, selling for £125 each to Lancashire-based Whiteheads Butchers, an award-winning fourth generation family butcher and delicatessen based in Edgworth, between Blackburn and Darwen.

The leading per head call of £135 each fell to a pen of 51kg Charollais from Skipton regular Robert Towers, of Farleton, Lancaster, these selling to Hartwith’s Nick Dalby, who was buying on behalf of Stephen Maskill Butchers in Hebden Bridge.

The 2,715 old season lambs on parade sold to an overall average of £82.81 per head, or 190.55p/kg. Henry Atkinson, of Felliscliffe, also had a tidy run of Beltex-crosses, which made £119 each for a pen of 26 weighing 45kg, while another pen of 15 Beltex weighing 37kg from the same flock made 300p/kg, or £111.

Fox Farms in Clitheroe sold a pen of 40kg Beltex at £115, Paul Simpson, of Bolton-by-Bowland, made 300p/kg, or £96, with a 20-strong 32kg Beltex pen, while James Towler, of Grindleton, hit 297.4p/kg with his 38kg Beltex.

Commercial lowland lambs were cheaper on the week, with the better end of export weights trading either side of 200p/kg and ordinary types 180-190p, while heavy 46-52kg lowland lambs traded on a par with the previous week. Hill-bred lambs were also not up to the previous Monday’s flying trade, though horned lambs, especially lightweights, met a very similar trade.

Cast sheep, 301 in total, saw a shortage of the best heavy cull ewes, though Mules were again good to sell, with the best end making from the late £70s to early £80s. J Smith, of Sutton-in-Craven, was top with a £117.50 per head Texel pen. Ewes sold at an overall average of £64.47 per head and cast rams £69.90.

A good entry of ewes with lambs at foot for the weekly sale - 311 in total - saw trade for commercial outfits dearer on the week, with a full ringside of buyers looking for mouths to graze the fast-growing grass.

Top price was £215 per outfit for Mule shearlings with twins from David White, of Hebden, who also sold correct Mules with twins to £192 per outfit. Of the ewes with single lambs, there was a high of £190 for Texel correct ewes with Beltex lambs from Alan Midgley, of Ludendenfoot, Halifax.
 
Attention now turns to the annual Easter show and sale of Spring lambs this coming Monday, April 10, when retail and wholesale butcher buyers will be out in force, as they gear up for the forthcoming peak Easter trade.