Peter Fox, of Withgill, Clitheroe, was responsible for the first prize 2015-born bullock, a classy Limousin-cross, which sold for £1,390, the day’s top call, to Lincolnshire’s K Littleworth & Sons, from Horncastle, and another which took second prize and sold for £1,280 to Bolster Moor Farm in Golcar, Huddersfield.

Mr Fox also took second and third prize for 2015-born heifers, again with two Limousin-crosses, which sold for £1,370 and £1,320, and became further Bolster Moor acquisitions.

Sheila Mason, who runs the Keasden Head pedigree herd in Clapham, took first prize for over year heifers with a lovely Blue-cross, which sold for £1,290 to Kirkby Malham’s Jeff Burrow.

Jonathan Townley, of Clapham, won the 2016-born bulls class, with a home-bred March-born British Blue, which joined regular buyer Stephen Swales, a farmer and butcher in York, at £1,080.

The show formed part of Skipton’s fortnightly cattle sale, which attracted an entry of 515 head, among them 86 young feeding bulls and 418 bullocks and heifers.
 
A seasonal shortage of good quality strong bulls saw top-end cattle getting away at £1,100 and upwards, while 2016-born cattle met a good trade for high quality types, with seven-month-old bulls making £900 - £1,120, though second quality stock was harder to place.

The youngest cattle met a good audience of both finishers and customers looking for cattle to grow on. Top price in the young bulls section of £1,340 fell to a Limousin-cross from Silsden Moor’s Simon Bennett. The overall Continental-cross average was £818 per head.

In the store section, trade was rather mixed, Regardless of age, the smarter end was easily sold, but anything very commercial or a plain dairy-cross was harder to cash in. Suckled bullock calves were a strong trade, the best end nicely in the £900s up to £1,000-plus. That was also the case with heifers, although plain sorts soon slipped below £700.
 
Store bullocks achieved a 2015-born average of £905 per head and £773 for 2016-born. Pen prices in each category were headed by Don Leeming, of Ramsgill, with five Limousin at £1,145 each, and £940 each for a trio of Limousin from Alan Twell of Spalding in Lincolnshire.
 
Store heifers averaged £891 for 2015-born and £725 for 2016-born, with pen prices peaking at £1,000 each for three 2015-born Limousin from ABJ&S Witt, of Worsthorne, and £845 each for four 2016-born Limousin from George Fleetwood, of Mirfield.

The seven beef breeding cattle penned for sale sold to a high of £1,440 for a Saler cow with Charolais heifer calf at foot from Robert Gemmell, of Bradshaw, Halifax, while a small entry of beef-bred feeding cows averaged £595 per head.

The next fortnightly sale on Wednesday, November 9, also features annual pedigree shows for Shorthorn and South Devon cattle.