Herdwicks top of the flocks at CCM Skipton native and rare breeds highlight
Herdwick sheep were top of the flocks when taking both championship and reserve championship honours at Skipton Auction Mart’s annual Rare & Native Stock Breeders Auctions of rare, minority and traditional breeds. (Sat, Sept 8)
With another wide and diverse variety of sheep penned for both showing and sale - over 500 head were forward in total - judge Margaret Watkinson, of Hutton Sessay, found both her principals in a strong hill and heath show class.
She awarded the championship to Cumbrian Herdwick breeders, Ian and Angela Grisedale, who run the Swinside flock at Green Mount Farm, Crooklands, Kendal, with a 2015-born 2-shear ram, by Bar Field, out of a West Head dam. It sold for the leading breed price of 200gns to Jeff Ryder, of Haverah Park, Harrogate.
The Grisedales have now won the Skipton title four times in the past five years, only missing out in 2017, though they clinched the reserve championship and top price in sale with a 2-shear ram.
Standing reserve champion this year was the first prize Herdwick female, a four-year-old 3-shear from local breeder Sharon Spaven, of Jenkin Farm, Silsden Moor, with what was her very first foray into the show arena. She only started breeding Herdwicks four years ago. Known fondly at home as Bramble, the overall reserve made 100gns when joining the Grisedales.
The Parkin family, from Fulwood, Preston – husband and wife, Michael and Margaret, and their daughter Ann – were also among the prizes with their Parkfold Shetland flock, established almost a quarter of a century ago.
They landed both first and second prizes in the primitive male show class with a brace of rams, the red rosette falling to their 2017-born fully home-bred shearling, Parkford Carl, sold for 50gns.
The Parkins also finished second and third in the primitive females show class, where first prize fell to a 2016 Hebridean female from Gam Farm Rare Breeds in Grassington. Their six-strong consignment all sold successfully to a top of 95gns for a Whitefaced Woodland ewe.
Top price of 240gns fell to the first prize Longwool male, a 2017 Greyface Dartmoor ram from show regular D Booth, of Norbury in Cheshire. It was by a Cradwell ram, the oldest flock in Greyface Dartmoor book, and sold for 65gns to Isobel Lampkin, of Silsden.
Mr Booth also finished second and third in the Longwool females show class, which was won by Harvey Chapman, of Bedale, also with a Greyface Dartmoor, which made 65gns and was among a pen of four all claimed by Isobel Lampkin.
Another Greyface Dartmoor from S&K Watson, of Barnoldswick, made 180gns, while Kerry Hill sheep sold to a top of 100gns for an entry from Philip Ormerod, of West Marton.
Catching the eye in the cattle section were Dexters from James Child, of Bardsey, Leeds, who sold a heifer for £320 and a cow and calf at £320, all by the Bardsey pedigree herd’s well utilised stock bull, Toad Hall Paul. Mr Child established the herd a decade ago.
Wilson charity lambs nets £120 for Parkinsons UK
A highlight of the day was a Teeswater shearling gimmer lamb kindly donated by husband and wife, David and Kathryn Wilson, of Crimple Head Farm, Beckwithshaw, Harrogate, for auction in aid of the Parkinsons UK charity.
Mr Wilson suffers from Parkinsons, as did his wife’s father and the family has been busy raising money for the charity. Two years ago, Mrs Wilson, the couple’s son, Richard, and his wife Alex, undertook an organised trek of Mont Blanc raising £9,000, while the week before the sale Mrs Wilson and her youngest daughter, Deborah, had just returned from another charity trek in Iceland, which has to date raised over £3,600.
Mrs Wilson is a member of Parkinsons UK and the local branch in Harrogate. The fund-raising kitty was further boosted when the charity lamb at Skipton sold for £120, finding a new home in East Anglia with Paul Sleightholme, of Brandon. Others who may wish to support the cause can do so via www.justgiving.com/fundraising/icelandadventure2018
New goats show achieves 86% clearance
A hectic Saturday also featured an inaugural show and sale of pedigree and pure-bred red goats, with a decent catalogue put together prior to the sale. Of the entries forward, an 86% clearance rate was achieved.
In the pre-sale show, judge James Ormerod, of West Marton, chose a pedigree 2017 Boer buck from Chris Dickinson, of Penrith, as his champion, later sold for 340gns, with local breeder, Ellie Crisp of Calton, taking the reserve championship with a pure 2018 Boer buck sold for 260gns.
Top price of 365gns twice fell to a pair of 2018 Pygmy nanny kids from St Leonards Farm Park in Esholt, which were keenly contested at the ringside, while next in line was the third prize pedigree Boer, Davel UK Chandra, from Sarah Brocklebank, of Goole, which made 350gns.
Ellie Crisp was on the mark again with a run of 1-crop dairy nannies in kid to a Pure Boer buck, which saw a very healthy trade. Scanned with singles to triplets, they sold to 160gns twice, averaging £132.50 per head, with another run of February, 2018, dairy-cross Boer nannies topping at 180gns and averaging £126.52.
Best of the rest
A standalone sale of 156 easy care sheep saw rams sell to 350gns, this for a shearling from Graham Shepherd, of Woodplumpton, Preston, with ewes selling to £100 and ewe lambs to £51.
Also on the agenda was the monthly Saturday collective sale of 81 head of stirks, weaned calves and store cattle. Prices peaked at £745 for a Limousin heifer – the section average was £595 – with a Blonde heifer also making £750, all producing an eye-catching section average of £653. Steers sold to a top of £650 for a Limousin, with a British Blue hitting £625. Bulls sold to £240 for a Holstein Friesian.
A good number of breeding sheep were also penned for sale, with Mules doing best when selling to a top of £270.