64 Rearing Calves to £600 B&W av £93.13 Cont av £373.04 Native av £205 A Fantastic Bank Holiday trade for calves this Monday with British Blue calves being the pick of the day with trade topping at £600 twice both from Fred and Mark Houseman of Church Farm Enterprises with a blue bull and blue heifer one heading east and one south. Other vendors received as good a trade with Booths of Lothersdale making £530 and £520. Black and white calves were also a serious trade with a good show of quality averaging £93.13. A great day with buyers again expected to be out in force on dairy day next week.

Rearing Calves to £420 (61) B&W av £72.36 Cont av £358.50 Native av £167.9

Peter Baul champion again at Skipton, as dairy prices strengthen More promising signs than seen of late were in evidence at Skipton Auction Mart’s main March Craven Dairy Auction, with certain stamps of milkers making strong money. Bishop Thornton’s Peter Paul, who runs the Ravensgate pedigree Holstein herd at Watergate Farm, bagged his second dairy title of 2015 with his sole entry, the first prize newly calven heifer, Ravensgate Jeeves Sparkle 202, the latest in a long line of prolific milkers from the Sparkle family.

50 Rearing Calves & 18 Dairy Cattle. Craven Dairy Auction (18 head) More promising signs than seen of late, with certain stamps of milkers making strong money. Frank Wrathall was judge for todays For Farmers prize Show and Sale with a sweet heifer from Peter Baul of Bishop Thornton taking top honours and reaching the sales top price of £2050 to Brian Blezard of Ribchester. Robin Jennings a strong supporter of Skipton Dairy Sales received a better trade than previous weeks with his reserve champion homebred heifer £1780 to regular buyer Mark Goodall of Tong. Brian Moorhouse of Bell Busk and Keith Downs, Bingley were both on the end of strong trades reaching £1780 and £1740 respectively.

81 Rearing Calves. Rearing Calves to £710 (81) B&W av £81 Cont av £413 Native av £260.5 A fantastic show of rearing calves today with a top quality entry from all supporters. The top honours of the day went to a suckler bred calf from Phillip Summers, Clayton which rocketed to a new auction record of £710. The day was full of other high prices with Shaun & Peter Sowray taking the next top with a Limousin Bull peaking at £630. Other vendors such as Fred Houseman and John Marshall of Monk Ing had some strong runs with an average of £434 for British Blue Bulls. Strong prices were also received for Aberdeen Angus calves with bulls averaging £251 and Heifers averaging to £268. Credit to all the entered and congratulations to the prize winners.

New auction record in fantastic rearing calf show at Skipton In a fantastic show of rearing calves, Phillip Summers set a new auction record price when selling his champion for £710 at Skipton Auction Mart this week. (MON, MARCH 16) Mr Summers, of Clayton, Bradford, had never won the calf championship at Skipton before. His six-week-old British Blue bull, a suckler-bred calf out of a pedigree Limousin cow and by a Genus bull, emerged as champion at the Spring Calf show, before selling for the new top price record to regular buyers Vickers & Richardson, of Scarborough.

70 Rearing Calves & 26 Dairy Cattle..... Craven Dairy Auction (28 head) A quality show of dairy cows with very few second quality goods, a run of Heifers and Cows from the Calvert Family of Crathorne were the pick of the bunch. Prices were straight for honest milkers but sky high prices but the 2nd Calver from the Calvert family was particularly impressive reaching a modest £1880 and heading to John Howard of Heslaker. Other Vendors such as Richard Walker of East Morton reaching £1750 and Duncan and Gary Robinson of Low Birks at £1700 having good trades for quality cattle.

51 Rearing Calves & 24 Dairy Cattle - Rearing Calves to £440 B&W av £115 Cont av £343 Native av £170 Calves were a strong trade today with black and whites a serious price with an average of £115 with some cracking sorts from the likes of John Blackwell and Ralph Guy making strong money at £130 and £120 but Graham Hayton topped with a 9 wk Friesian at £240. British Blues could march easily into the £400’s and topping £440 for Church Farm Enterprises with bulls averaging £360. Limousin’s would be the straightest price on the day with 5 averaging in the late £280’s with calves only 4-5 weeks old.

Craven Dairy Auction (8 head) A very small show of dairy cows with a number of vendors not forward, however those that did roll up were well supported with all newly calven heifers averaging a respectable £1671 with a number of buyers going away empty handed. 1st Prize went to a sweet heifer to Father and Son team from Church Farm Enterprises, Fred and Mark. Senterprise Fidelity Greta, a home bred pedigree heifer calved 21days and giving 31kg sold for £2,000 to Alf and Andrew Townsend. John Robinson from Harmby had the second top price on his debut with a fine home bred red heifer giving 30kg and making a strong price of £1980. Tony Swires had the third and Second prize heifers, both big smart dark heifers reaching £1920 to the Sowray Brothers of Bishop Thornton.

Rearing Calves to (62) £440 B&W av £71.95 Cont av £380.29 Native av £183.6 A strong show of rearing calves today, with mainly continentals on show with over half British Blue’s. With Suckler men in attendance trade was particularly strong for sweet British Blue heifers topping at £430 and 16 British Blue’s over £400. Strong show of calves needed for next week with buyers looking for strong well fleshed calves in all classes.

MARKET REPORT – MONDAY 12th JANUARY 2015. Forward: 64 Prime cattle comprising 11 Clean Cattle & 53 Cast Cattle. 2,580 Prime & Cast Sheep comprising 2,025 Prime & Lightweight Hoggs, 555 Cast Ewes & Rams. 71 Rearing Calves. 16 Dairy Cattle. 13 Loads of Produce. A much busier day than expected at CCM Skipton today given the atrocious weather over the weekend and early this morning. Good entries across the board and primestock prices stronger than expected.

Robert Crisp champion again at Skipton dairy opener A small show of just 16 dairy cattle was on parade at Skipton Auction Mart’s opening Craven Dairy Auction of 2015, quite possibly as a direct result of the continuing milk price upheaval affecting the sector and its knock-on effect on livestock trade. (Mon, Jan 12)

124 Rearing Calves to £570 A great show of rearing calves to start the new year. The quality on offer was befitting of any show and a large ringside of buyers bid freely to secure what was on offer. Champion – JP&KE Hartley Reserve – F Spence

Craven Dairy Auction (23 head) A small show of dairy cattle with just 16 down the shippon, but a good show nonetheless. Judging was undertaken by regular supporter Robin Jennings from South Stainley taking the pressure of going from showing to judging and didn’t deliberate long over the entrants picking a David and Suzy Lawson heifer that was giving 20 litres and calved 21 days, the champion then proceeded to take top price of the day £2020 to Wick Williams, Nantwich.

Sowrays secure Skipton Christmas rearing calf championship hat-trick The Sowray dairy farming family from Bowes Green Farm, Bishop Thornton, won their third successive Christmas rearing calf title at Skipton Auction Mart. (Mon, Dec 1) It capped an excellent year at the North Yorkshire venue for brothers Peter, Paul and Shaun Sowray, who have reigned supreme with their top-notch British Blue-cross bull calves at all but one of the six seasonal highlights, becoming reserve champions at the other.