| 2016-05-25 |    |
Judge Buys Prime Lamb Champions at Skipton
A special Whitsuntide prize show and sale of Spring lambs at Skipton Auction Mart saw Richard Frankland secure the champion’s rosette with a brace of Beltex-cross-Texel lambs. (May 23)
Robert Towers, of Camp House Farm, Farleton, Lancaster, was reserve champion with two Beltex-cross-Charollais entries.
Richard Frankland is pictured centre with his Skipton prime lamb champions, assisted by judge and buyer Clare Cropper. Robert Towers is on the left with his reserve champions.
Long Preston’s Clare Cropper - as well as her farming interests she is also an integral part of her father George Cropper’s retail butchery business in Accrington Market - officiated as show judge and then claimed the 42kg champions for the day’s leading price by far at £175 per head, or 416p/kg.
The title winners were bought purposely for G&C Cropper Family Butchers’ new shop in Accrington Market, which is due to officially open on Friday, June 10. It is more than three times the size of their current unit, with which George Cropper has had an association stretching back almost 60 years.
He originally worked for the previous owner, taking over in his own right on his retirement. The new shop has also traded as a butchers for many years and is being completely refurbished by the Croppers, retaining the long-established and well-respected meat side of the business, complemented by the introduction of new and extended ranges, among them ready-meals and barbecue products, all hand-crafted in-house.
Mr Towers’ 39kg reserve champions fell for £108 each to regular buyer Andrew Atkinson, of Felliscliffe, who purchased them purposely on behalf of another Red Rose customer, wholesaler Hartshead Meats, which is based at Millstone Farm, Mossley, Ashton-under-Lyne.
Hartshead’s Richard Mullaney said the award-winning lambs were destined for one of his regular customers, WH Frost Butchers in The Square, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, a fourth generation butcher’s shop run by Jack Frost and family.
In addition, Hartshead Meats paid £109 per head for the second prize 45kg Suffolk-cross pen from local breed specialist Mark Evans, of Steeton, who was also responsible for the red rosette-winning 48kg pen, which sold at £106 each to Kendalls Farm Butchers for its shops in Harrogate and Pateley Bridge.
The third prize 42kg Suffolk pen from John Mellin, of Lothersdale, made £94 each when selling to Keelham Farm Shop, of Skipton and Thornton, while the third prize 39kg Continental pen from DA Livestock, of Haverah Park, Harrogate, joined Vivers Scot Lamb in Annan at £104 per head.
A larger entry of 568 Spring lambs sold to an overall average of £87.27 per head, or 213.3p/kg, a rise of 10p/kg on the week. Ten pens sold for over 250p/kg and a further 41 pens at between 220-250p/kg. Commercial lambs generally reached 200p/kg, while heavy types at 46-52kg were also good to sell and matched the mart average of 214p/kg.
The 1,612 prime sheep forward also included 612 hoggs, a smaller turnout as the end of the season approaches and another mixed bag. However, some well-fed hoggs could still make 170p/kg plus, though anything lacking was around the 150p/kg mark. The overall average was £67.54 per head or 157p/kg, with highs of £85 per head and 193.2p/kg for Beltex offerings from Nick Capstick, of Bolton-by-Bowland.
A total of 61 mature hoggs were also among the day’s mix and these achieved an overall selling average of £53.29 per head, or 130.1p/kg, which was described as a nice trade in the face of weaker prices generally the previous week.
Getting on for 400 cast sheep were also penned for sale, with cull ewes averaging £62.95 per head and peaking at £112.50 each for a Texel pen from father and daughter Fred and Julie Eddington, of Bell Busk. Cast rams averaged £81.95 per head.
In the breeding sheep section, the entry of 447 head, comprising 170 ewes with 258 lambs at foot, represented an improved late season showing, which proved of considerable interest to a larger ringside of customers.
Megan Thomas, of Cowling, topped the sale at £225 with her Zwartble-cross gimmer hogg with Blue Texel-cross gimmer lamb at foot, which sold to the Greensit family in Ripon. Richard Stockdale, of Burnsall, also sold two pens of Texel hoggs with single lambs at £185 per outfit.
