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DAIRY PRESS - MONDAY 8TH DECEMBER 2021

Over 40 head sold at Craven Dairy Auction, with another Smith family sale topper The latest fortnightly Craven Dairy Auction at Skipton Auction Mart saw 10 freshly calved heifers forward, with Mark Smith, of Winterburn, topping the trade at £2,150 for a daughter of De-Su Hartley, calved 25 days and already giving 34kg.



This robot-ready heifer was bred from a 8500kg heifer dam and was judged reserve champion by pre-sale judge Richard Crabtree, of Otley. She headed home in a load of four to regular purchaser Mark Goodall of Tong, Bradford.

The day’s champion was a black heifer, Aireburn Brody Christine, from the Moorhouses at Bell Busk. Backed by two generations of EX dams, she sold for £2,080 to Brian Blezzard at Ribchester.

Third place in the heifer in milk class was awarded to new vendor. James Lawn, of Cullingworth, who will have more fresh stock to sell over the coming months, while regular vendors Robert Crisp and John Thompson both brought a trio of heifers forward and both topped their consignments at £1,900 to Mark Goodall and John Howard, Gargrave, respectively.
The nine fresh calved heifers sold averaged £1,634.

The sale concluded with 33 bulling heifers from one of the country’s leading British Friesian herds, the Burroughs family Oakalby herd on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. This autumn black calving herd had a genuine surplus and offered a uniform well-balanced group of yearlings born August to October, 2020, which had travelled the long distance very well.

The group commanded a solid trade, peaking at £820 twice for Oakalby Brandey Britto 100 and Oakably Bryster Trudy 63, while the total clearance averaged £704, with three buyers securing the lots, and Evolution Farming the main volume buyer of the batch.

Next up is the Christmas show and sale on Monday, November 29.