Monthy prime champions crowned at Skipton Auction Mart
Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton again set about putting the very best of locally reared British beef on to the tables of its customers in Craven and beyond when buying both the champion and reserve at Skipton Auction Mart’s October prime cattle show and sale.
They claimed the victor, a 470kg British Blue-cross heifer from David Bailey, of Long Lee, for 276.5p/kg, or £1,244, while a copper behind at 275.5p/kg, or £1,501 gross, was the reserve champion, another Blue-cross heifer weighing 545kg from Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching.
The top gross prices saw returning vendors the Shepherd family, from Greenhow, lead the heifers with a 620kg Limousin-cross heifer sold to a new buyer, G Harrison, of Preston, for £1,683, or 271.5p/kg.
In the steers, the best gross was £1,673, or 265.5p/kg, for a 630kg Limousin-cross steer from Malham Moor’s Bill Cowperthwaite, sold to Eldwick’s Mick Etherington. Trade for the 16 under 30-month clean cattle was unrelenting and the mart says more cattle are urgently required to fulfil orders.
There were dual Calderdale successes In the prime lambs show when John Midgley, of Ludendenfoot, presented the champion pen of five 40kg Beltex-cross sold for top price per kilo of 362p, or £145 each, to regular retail buyer Anthony Swales, for his Knavesmire Butchers in York, whose purchases also included two further leading price pens.
However, it was the reserve champion pen of five 45kg Beltex-cross lambs from September champion George Sunderland, of Cragg Vale, Hebden Bridge, that claimed top price per head of £155.50, or 338p/kg, when sold to weekly wholesale buyer Vivers Scotlamb in Annan.
The 3,652 prime lambs penned for sake sold to an overall average of £88.89 per head, or 201.5p/kg.
Prime cattle show judge was John Mellin, of Long Preston, with Mick Etherington, of Eldwick, judging the prime lambs.