Mr Metcalfe clinched his latest title with his red rosette-winning all-black Limousin-cross bullock, bred in Cumbria and acquired from Clapham’s Jonathan Townley at last December’s annual Christmas store cattle show and sale at Skipton, when it was the first prize steer.

Pictured with the prime cattle champion at Skipton Auction Mart’s March show are, from left, Matthew Mitchell, new head chef at the Keelham Kitchen in Skipton, vendor Malcolm Metcalfe and regular buyer James Robertshaw, of Keelham Farm Shop.

Further improved at home by Mr Metcalfe, the 545kg victor sold for £1,382, or 253.5p/kg, the day’s leading by-weight price, to Keelham Farm Shop’s James Robertshaw, who has now bought all three prime cattle champions at this year’s monthly shows and remains the most prolific buyer of prime cattle on a weekly basis at the mart.

At the latest fixture, Mr Robertshaw bought nine of the 21 under 30-month clean cattle forward for sale. His other acquisitions included:
The day’s top gross price Limousin-cross bullock from James Drake, of Carleton, at £1,407, or 236.5p/kg, along with a second Limousin-cross heifer from the same vendor at £1,325, or 232.5p/kg.

The top price by weight heifer, a 465kg Limousin-cross from Don Leeming of Ramsgill, at 243.5p/kg.

The second prize Limousin-cross bullock from Bill Cowperthwaite, of Malham Moor, at £1,308, or 229.5p/kg.

The second prize Limousin-cross heifer from Silsden Moor’s Simon Bennett at £1,204, or 238.5p/kg.

The third prize Blonde-cross heifer from Roger Wood, of Cross Roads, for £1,307.

As usual, all Keelham’s beef cattle buys will be fully matured to maximise their flavour and eating quality before going on sale at their two shops in Skipton and Thornton. Stanforths Butchers in Skipton also made three acquisitions.

The cast cattle section attracted a 50-strong entry, all but one of them cull cows, which defied earlier predictions and remained a firm trade to average only a fraction of a pence less than the previous week, despite heavy marketing of culls around the UK. The overall selling average was £685.80 per head, or 97.04p/kg.

In a standalone cull cow show class, Ken and Lynne Throup, of Silsden Moor, won the dairy section with a black and white – they sold three on the day to a top of £820 - while C Lumb & Son, of Barkisland, Halifax, presented the first prize beef-bred entry, a Limousin that made £962, or 122.5p/kg.

The top cow on price was a British Blue from Joe and Helen Drinkall, of Anglezarke, Chorley, which made £990, or 124.5p/kg.

Capstick champion prime lambs
Father-and-son sheep farmers Nicky and Robert Capstick, of Yew Tree Farm, Bolton-by-Bowland, won the prime lamb championship for the first time ever at Skipton Auction Mart’s March show.

The Capsticks were not only clinching their first title, but also their first-ever prize at Skipton with the red rosette-winning pen of five Continental home-bred Texel-cross-Beltex 48kg prime lambs from their 200-strong flock. They sold for £119 per head to regular buyers Vivers Scotlamb in Annan.

Show judge David Findlay, of Coverdale, nominated his second prize Continental pen, five 40kg Beltex from David Asquith, of Otley, as reserve champions, then proceeded to buy them in the sale ring at £92 per head.

The third prize Continental pen of 56kg Texel-cross from long distance travellers H Harvey & Son, of Waxham in Norfolk, made £104 per head when joining Felliscliffe’s Andrew Atkinson, who also snapped up all other prize winners on the day.

These were the first prize 54kg Suffolk pen from Steve Dorey, of Newark, at £94 per head, the first and second prize horned lamb pens, 45kg Lonks from Jimmy Greenwoood, of Addingham, both at £79 each, and the first and second prize Mules, the former from the Harveys at £92.50, the latter from Mr Dorey at £84.50.

Outside the show classes, prime sheep numbers remained strong, with the 3,275 turnout comprising just over 3,000 old season lambs, which traded to an overall selling average or £81.78 per head, or 190.1p/kg.

The best end proved dearer on the week, with Paul Simpson, of Forest Becks, Bolton-by-Bowland, yet again topping the market at £124 per head and 323.7p/kg with quality Beltex pens. He had four pens over 300p/kg, while Kath Saffrey, of Halton West, had lambs at 307p/kg and Fox Farms, of Clitheroe, sold two pens at 300p/kg. All were again Beltex entries. In total, 57 pens of lambs sold for £100 or more.

A commercial type of lamb met a similar trade on the week, with heavy sorts now finding a good following from a wide range of buyers. Mule lambs topped in the 190s per kg, generally trading around 180p/kg. Horned lambs were the same trade as the previous week.

Also among the mix were 273 cast ewes and rams, with cull ewes trading to a high of £113.50 per head for a Charollais pen from Charles Marwood, of Whenby, York, who was heading the section prices for the third week in succession. Ewes averaged £59.20 per head and rams £59.03, with Mr Marwood again leading the way with a Charolais at £103.50.

The weekly Monday breeding sheep sale of ewes with lambs at foot got into full swing, attracting a larger entry of 319 head, with buyers out in force. Frankland Farms, from Rathmell, led the sale at £205 per outfit with Texel cross ewes with twins, selling others at £200 at £195.

Others hitting £200 included Richard Umpleby, of Killinghall, with Suffolk-cross broken-mouthed ewes with Texel lambs, while Austwick’s James and Deborah Ogden sold 4-crop correct Mules with strong Charollais lambs at £200 and £190.

More calves needed at Skipton
Rearing calf demand shows no sign of letting up at Skipton and the 61 youngsters on parade at the weekly Monday sale were easily sold to willing buyers. “In fact, demand is outweighing supply at the moment,” noted auctioneer Sam Bradley.

Continentals were a stronger trade on the week, with some quality Limousin and British Blue runs coming from Geoff and Margaret Booth, of Lothersdale, who topped the day’s trade with a Blue bull calf at £415. John Wright, of Airton, was not far behind with another Blue at £400.

The overall Continental-cross selling average was £323.30 per head.

Natives were again good to sell, with Andrew Lumb, of Oakworth, and Chris Watson, of Horton-in-Craven, leading the way with Hereford-cross calves at £290 and £250 respectively. The section average was £214 per head.

Black and whites were a touch easier on the week, averaging £61.75 per head and selling to a top of £98 for a bull calf from Edward Fort, of Silsden.

Skipton produce
Eleven loads of produce were on offer at Skipton’s weekly Monday sale, with wheat straw quads selling to £50 per tonne and wheat straw mini hestons to £10 per bale. Hay sold to £26 per bale for mini hestons, to £25 for quads and to £21 for rounds.

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