Cheshire success at Skipton summer store cattle show
Tom Ryan, who farms in Altrincham, Cheshire, presented the first prize young bull and overall show champion at a special summer cattle show at Skipton Auction Mart, which produced healthy trade throughout. (Wed, July 22)
Mr Ryan secured the title with a 12-months-old home-bred British Blue-cross sired by a pedigree Blue bull he had earlier bought at Skipton. It sold for the day’s top joint top call of £1,440 to York father-and-son farmers and butchers Stephen and Anthony Swales.
The same buyers also acquired the second and third in class, both Blues, with the runner-up from Nidderdale’s Bernard Simpson, of Heathfield, also achieving £1,440, and the third prize winner, again from Mr Ryan, at £1,360.
The Swales’s remain prolific buyers of young bulls at Skipton, returning home with 18 in total, all of which will be further fed on the family farm in Melbourne, before taking their place in the food chain at their Knavesmire Butchers shop in Albermarle Road, York, this autumn.
The 96 bulls forward set the tone on the day when averaging £1,065 per head overall, with a Continental-cross average of £1,079 and a native average of £1,057. The top price pen of three British Blue bulls from the Townsend family in Laneshawbridge each made £1,080
Trade for bullocks and heifers – 238 in number – was similar on the fortnight, with a large proportion of dairy-bred goods on offer today indicating the current strength of the market.
Peter and Edward Fox, from Clitheroe, made a clean sweep of the prizes in the show class for bullocks with Limousin-cross entries that sold to a high of £1,340, this falling to Staffordshire’s Ben Elkin. Section prices were headed at £1,355 by another Limousin-cross from Charles and Richard Kitching, of Threshfield.
Andrew Fawcett, of Bishop Thornton, had the highest priced pen of three Simmental bullocks, which each sold for £1,325. Continental-cross store bullocks averaged £1,132 per head overall. Natives were also well supported with Paul Drinkall, of Gargrave, reaching £1,235 each for a pen of three Aberdeen Angus steers. The overall native average was £1,069.
Barden’s Stephen and Tracey Fawcett, along with their daughter Samantha, took first and third prizes in the heifers’ show class with British Blue-sired entries that sold at £1,130 and £1,020 respectively. However, top price in class of £1,430 fell to the second prize Limousin-cross heifer from Andrew Rigby, of Slaidburn.
The top price pen of three Blue-cross heifers from Broughton’s Jeremy Taylor made £1,145 each.
Forty breeding cattle were also among the mix, with Limousin-cross heifers with Limousin heifer calves at foot the leading performers on price when selling to £2,000, this for an entry from Ashfield Farms in Lothersdale.
Show judge was Martin Wilcock, from North Ashton, Wigan.