Skipton store cattle opener one of best ever
Skipton Auction Mart’s first Wednesday store cattle sale of 2015 had the best possible start when attracting a knockout entry of 1,413 head, an increase of over 300 on last year’s corresponding fixture and one of the highest entries ever seen at the current site. (Wed, Jan 7)
In the store cattle section, which attracted 1,028 head, there were some fantastic annual consignments of strong cattle for which this sale is noted. The ringside was jam-packed, with a standout total of 118 separate buyers successful by the end of the sale. Younger cattle also found a very good following, with buyers keen to secure the best on offer.
Store bullocks sold to an overall Continental-x average of £1,134 each, with a native average of £1,077. There were joint highs of £1,435 across three breeds, all from the same vendors, Matt and Ted Mason, of Appletreewick, with four Charolais-x bullocks, also the top price pen, along with British Blue-x and Aberdeen Angus entries.
Store heifers sold to a Continental-x average of £1,025 per head, with a native average of £1,011, top call at £1,400 falling to another British Blue-x from Bob Lancaster, of East Morton. The top price pen of three Simmental-x heifers from Carleton’s John Smith each sold for £1,270 each.
The 1,360 young feeding bulls and store cattle forward were all keenly contested to average £1,035 per head overall, which represented a rise of around £38 on the year.
Twenty-two separate buyers were successful at the ringside as the first draw of the 2014 Spring-born feeding bulls - 332 in total – came forward for sale, which was marked by the same exceptional runs of premium quality continental-x bulls that met a ready trade from feeders filling pens after a busy pre-Christmas sales period, with the average of £981 per head up £8.78 on the year. Native breed entries also performed well when averaging £780 each.
Three British Blue-x entries from Trawden’s Hayley Baines produced the day’s highest young bull prices of £1,460, £1,420 and £1,320 respectively, with the top price pen of three or more bulls falling to a pen of four Charolais-x from DW Barker, of Leathley, which each sold for £1,110.
In addition, there were 52 head of breeding cattle, which also sold exceptionally well, with highs of £1,750 for Limousin-x females with heifer calves from Ashfield Farms in Lothersdale. The next fortnightly cattle sale is this coming Wednesday, January 21.