| 2016-11-09 |    |
Two Trevors Take Top Honours at Skipton Prime Shows
A standout Limousin-cross bullock from Nidderdale’s Trevor Stoney, who trades with his father Joe at White Wood Farm, Bewerley, Pateley Bridge, was champion at Skipton Auction Mart’s November prime cattle show and sale. (Mon, Nov 7)
In the monthly prime lamb show, Trevor Robinson, who farms with his brother Clive at Middle Brayshaw Farm, Tosside, clinched the family’s first prime lamb championship of the year.
Trevor Stoney is pictured with his Skipton prime cattle champion, joined by judge James Dewhirst.
Weighing in at an impressive 720kg, the title-winning home-bred Limousin-cross steer from the Stoneys had excelled all summer on the regional show circuit, winning its breed class on every appearance, along with the Malhamdale championship.
By a well utilised French-bred stock bull, out of a Limousin/Blue-cross cow, the victor sold for the day’s per head high £1,552, or 215.5p/kg, to Halifax meat wholesaler Gerald Medcalf.
Standing reserve champion was the first prize 590kg British Blue-cross heifer from Jim and Christine Scrivin, who farm with their son Chris at Park House, Elslack.
The 19-month-old home-bred heifer, out of a Limousin-cross cow, sold for £1,537, or 260.5p/kg, the day’s by-weight high, to James Robertshaw, of Keelham Farm Shop, who yet again arrived with an impressive shopping list, purchasing 13 of the 29 under 30-month clean cattle on offer for his two family-run shops in Skipton and Thornton.
The Scrivin family also stepped up with the third prize 565kg Blue-cross heifer, which was also among the Keelham buys at £1,387, or 245.5p/kg. Other butcher buyers on the day were Edwards Farm Butchers in Burnley and Skipton-based Stanforths.
Another high quality prime cattle entry – 112 head were forward - met a very good trade, with over 30-month cattle continuing to sell well on the back of their younger counterparts, achieving an overall average of £639 per head, or 110.74p/g. Top gross price of £948 fell to a black and white heifer from Allan and Sue Throup, of Silsden Moor, with a by-weight high of 139.5p/kg for a black and white steer from Brian Church, of Askwith.
The Throups were also on the mark in the cull cow show arena when presenting the first prize dairy-bred, a black and white knocked down for top price in class of £822, with Embsay’s John and Claire Mason taking first and second prizes in the beef section with pure-bred Oddacres Limousins that sold away well at £1,115 and £1,019, or 144.5p and 138.5p/kg.
While meat was again in short supply, trade for plain and steaking cows was respectable, with feeding cow customers able to purchase Continental- cross cattle between 105p and 125p/kg. The overall selling average for the 73 cull cows forward was £585.07 per head, or 90.76p/kg, another improvement on the previous week’s £561.10, or 88.53p/kg.
Back with the prime lambs, the Robinsons, who sell all their lambs at Skipton and rattled up a hat-trick of successive monthly championships at Skipton in 2015 at around the same time of the year, got off the mark in 2016 with their pen of five hone-bred 42kg Beltex-cross, which joined Stephen Swales for his Knavesmire Butchers Shop in Albermarle Road, York, at £125 per head, or 297p/kg
Mr Swales also paid the day’s leading prices of £160 each, or 347.8p/kg, for the reserve champion pen of five 46kg Beltex-cross lambs from Leyburn’s Martin and Val Brown, who sold further pens at £110 twice, £109 and £108.
The first prize pen of £45kg Suffolks from D&A Livestock in Haverah Park fell to Keelham Farm Shop, with the second and third prize 44kg and 50kg pens from, respectively, Skipton’s Geoff and Margaret Lawn and James Earnshaw, from Flasby, both joining Skipton-based wholesaler Swaledale Foods, who also paid £81 per head for the second prize pen of Mules from the Booth family in Feizor.
The red rosette-winning 51kg Mule pen from Chris Ryder, of Blubberhouses, joined Paul Watson in Hellifield, at £78 per head, who also paid the same price for the third prize pen from another Blubberhouses vendor, Kevin Wilson.
Local judge James Dewhirst adjudicated in the both show classes.
The weekly turnout of 3,806 prime lambs sold to an overall average of £76.18 per head or 172.86p, which was a shade better than the previous Monday.
Outside the show classes, Stocks Enterprises, of Newsholme, sold Beltex lambs at £120, closely followed at £119 by another Beltex pen from Haverah Park’s Tom Walmsley. Other three-figure sales were achieved by Richard and Mark Ireland, Whalley, Nick Capstick, Bolton-by-Bowland, Michael Hall, Airton, and FW&JM Edington, Bell Busk.
Lowland lambs were exactly the same trade as the previous week, with plenty of very smart sorts making 200p-230p/kg, nice Continental crosses 175-195p, and commercial types 165-175p. Heavy lambs traded at £32 to £35 over the weight range, smarter sorts at £40-£45. Hill-bred lambs were a nice trade again, Mules around £26-£28 over the weight, with a few good pens touching £30-plus. Horned wether lambs traded around the 150p mark, with good tups making 140-145p
“Over the last few weeks, lamb numbers continue to be 10-15% higher than at the same point last year, with sale averages also £10-£12 per head higher. This is a reflection of lambs being well presented by vendors, being well fleshed and clean and right for the customer,” noted Skipton Auction Mart’s livestock sales manager Ted Ogden.
Also among the Monday mix were 379 cull ewes, which showed another slight improvement on the week to average £48.73 per head, peaking at £110 each for a Texel pen from Broughton’s Jeremy Taylor. A small number of cast rams averaged £37.50.
