734 Breeding Sheep (comprising 269 Sheep with 465 lambs at foot) A much larger entry sold away to a better trade this week with a good crowd of buyers assembled looking for sheep. Two pens shared the top price of £265 per outfit, the first were Texel cross Shearlings with Twins from David White at Hebden, and this was equalled by Rosie Dunn from York who consigned a pen of 2&3 crop Texels with strong lambs. General trade was £2 to £5 per life better on the week, but there was a smaller proportion of those outfits with young lambs as vendors look to bring strength.

Rearing Calves to £405 (50) B&W av £84.04 Cont av £327.49 Native av £350 Another fresh face for Black and Whites today with the predominantly Holstein bred calves receiving a strong trade to average £84.04 and top at £120 on 3 occasions, 1 of those from Johny Moon, Wigglesworth and 2 from Paul and Janet Bolland of Airton. Blue bulls again set the pace with Martyn Jennings hitting £405 with a sweet bull taking the average to £368.30. David Brown saw a roaring trade again for his Lincoln Red sired calves averaging £350 for the only native entries of the day. NB: Once again our calves averaged 38 days of age and still a strong trade.

Breeding Sheep - 343 Head comp 129 Sheep with 214 lambs at foot. A smaller entry this week and probably a sharper trade with a few different buyers at the ringside looking to source stock. Young Ewes with strong lambs keenly bid for, topping at £225 for 2 shear Texel Ewes with Twins from Johny Metcalfe of Linton, whilst older outfits were £5 per life dearer on the week.

Forward: 78 Prime cattle comprising 19 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 4 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 55 Cast Cattle. 3,189 Prime Sheep comprising 60 Spring Lambs, 2805 Prime Hoggs, 324 Cast Ewes & Rams. 343 Breeding Sheep. 50 Rearing Calves. 11 Loads of produce.

James Drake lands first prime cattle title at Skipton Local beef cattle farmer James Drake, of Carla Beck Farm, Carleton, was both champion and reserve at the April prime cattle show at Skipton Auction Mart. (Mon, April 4) While Mr Drake is a regular prize winner at his local mart, where he sources all his store cattle, it was his first-ever title-winning performance, achieved with his first prize 510kg British Blue-cross bullock, which sold for £1,242, or 243.5p/kg, to D&A Gregory and Sons Butchers in Bacup.

Fortnightly Sale of Young Feeding Bulls, Store Bullocks & Heifers, Breeding Cattle Forward: 481 head of cattle Comprising: 133 Young Feeding Bulls, 329 Bullocks & Heifers, 1 Feeding Cows & 18 Breeding Cattle. CCM Auctions held their fortnightly cattle sale at Skipton on Wednesday where 481 head were forward for sale. Short keep cattle held their value well in the face of reduced prime returns, the quality younger cattle were a sharp trade whilst additional buyers were at the ringside looking for summer grazing cattle.

Forward: 20 Prime cattle comprising 9 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos) & 11 Cast Cattle. 2,078 Prime Sheep comprising 27 Spring Lambs, 1744 Hoggs, 307 Cast Ewes & Rams. 1,053 Breeding Sheep comprising 382 Sheep with 671 lambs at foot. 64 Rearing Calves to £435 x 2 (64) B&W av £102.5 Cont av £326 Native av £217.2. 25 Dairy Cattle. 10 Loads of produce.

Rearing Calves to £435 x 2 (64) B&W av £102.5 Cont av £326 Native av £217.2 Bank holiday fails to disappoint once again with a strong trade throughout the sale. John Marshall, Dacre and Alan from Hartley’s, Bolton Abbey tied for the top price with two British Blue calves which were bid all the way to £435 each. Herefords and Angus’s were all well bid at with Richard Spence, Sutton In Craven topping the Herefords with a stonking calf at £330 and John Dodgson, Bank Newton topping the Angus section at £280. Black and whites were up on the week despite last weeks searing trade averaging £102.5 today with the top at £165 for a Friesian Bull from Stephen Marshall, West End with 10 over £100 and the bottom at an impressive £48.

1,053 Sheep comp 382 Sheep with 671 lambs at foot. The largest show of the season so far on Bank Holiday Monday attracted a good ringside of customers, however they were more cautious than of late with grass still in short supply. Anything with strong lambs was best to sell, but more commercial types were cheaper on the week by around £5-£8 per life. Today we held the Easter Show and judging was undertaken by Mr John Turner of Draughton. His choice as first prize pen of Continental Sheep with lambs were top price of £255 per outfit consigned by Mr Thomas Boothman of Linton. Thomas Boothman had a further 9 pens selling for £200 and £235 per outfit & Johnny Metcalfe selling for £200 per outfit. Full list of results below.

Boothman repeat bonanza at Skipton ewes with lambs opener Linton’s Thomas Boothman was once again the leading performer by far at Skipton Auction Mart’s opening show and sale of ewes with lambs at foot when retaining both the championship and reserve championship. He was also lifting the title for the third year in succession at the bank holiday highlight. (Mon, March 28)

Lawsons on the mark at Craven Dairy Auction The Lawson family’s Newbirks pedigree dairy herd clinched its first championship success of 2016 at the March bank holiday Craven Dairy Auction show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart. (Monday, March 28) Father and daughter David and Suzy Lawson, of Mill Farm, Arthington, lifted the title with their first prize newly calven heifer, Newbirks Heliotrope 361, by the Italian-bred Genus sire, Zelgadis, out of Heliotrope 326. With four generations of VG Ex behind her, the victor, four weeks calved and giving 29 litres, sold for £1,580 to regular buyers Alf and Andrew Townsend, of Southfield, Burnley,

Forward: 44 Prime cattle comprising 13 Clean Cattle (under 30 mos), 2 Clean Cattle (over 30 mos) & 29 Cast Cattle 3,099 Prime Sheep comprising 48 Spring Lambs, 2734 Old Season Lambs, 317 Cast Ewes & Rams 263 Breeding Sheep 83 Rearing Calves: B&W av £85.30 Cont av £364.26 Native av £200.6 to £780 7 Loads of produce

263 Breeding Sheep A smaller show of sheep and lambs were dearer on the week, but there were some stronger outfits on offer too. Top price of the day went to Paul Watson of Hellifield who sold Texel Shearlings with Twins at foot for £220. Johny Metcalf of Linton had 2 pens of 8 Texel 2crop ewes with twins making £210 and £200 per outfit, and for the third week running James and Deborah Ogden of Austwick were amongst the top prices with a pen of 10 Texel 3 crop Ewes with Twins selling at £205 per outfit. Best of the single outfits came from Andrew Bailey trading as Ivanhoe Livestock of Hunton, Bedale whose 3 shear Texels with Blue Texel Lambs sold to £170.

Rearing Calves to £780 (83) B&W av £85.30 Cont av £364.26 Native av £200.6 A superb show of continental calves met a searing trade with 10 calves over £400 and topping at a Skipton Record of £780 (that is is NOT a typo). The 37 day old British Blue bull from the Sowray Bros of Bishop Thornton was the Pre Sale Show Champion Judged by Samantha Asquith, Otley sold to Skipton Regular Show Supporter Lynne Vickers of Scarborough, who also went onto pick up the Reserve Champion at £620. The Mason family from Lincolnshire picked the second and third highest priced calves of the day again from the Sowray’s at £650 and £640.

Sowray calf sets new £780 record price at Skipton A new all-time high mart record price of £780 for a rearing calf was paid for the supreme champion at Skipton Auction Mart’s annual Spring show and sale. (Mon, March 21) It fell to the first prize British Blue-cross bull calf from the Sowray dairy farming family – brothers Shaun, Peter and Paul - from Bowes Green Farm, Bishop Thornton. By the Cogent sire, Dinmore Gaultier, which the Sowrays have only recently starting using, the 37-day-old title winner attracted spirited bidding at a packed ringside before joining Lynne Vickers, of Scarborough.