| 2013-02-22 |  |
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Clitheroe’s Ian Townson reigned supreme on Craven Champions Day, CCM Skipton’s annual show and sale of commercial store cattle with future show potential. (Skipton Auction Mart, Wed, Feb 20).
A quality entry of 50 up-and-coming youngsters, many of which can be expected to go on to achieve further honours on the 2013 agricultural show circuit, sold at an overall average of £1,240 per head.
Ian Townson with his Craven Champion
Mr Townson, of High Brake House, lifted the title with his first prize British Blue-sired bullock and male champion, an 11-month-old son of Blue Grass Cyclone – his only calf by the AI sire to date - and the third calf of a pedigree Limousin cow.
The victor sold for £1,400 to Andrew Bailey, of Cornfield House, Eldroth in North Craven. Mr Bailey, who breeds pedigree Blonde cattle, was buying on behalf of his 11-year-old daughter Jessica, a pupil at Austwick Primary School, who will parade her new charge at local and regional shows, with a potential tilt at the 2013 Great Yorkshire also in mind.
Mr Townson was also responsible for the reserve male champion with his first prize Charollais-sired bullock, by another AI sire, Lower Ffrydd Benhur, again out of a pedigree Limousin cow. The eight-month-old sold for £1,200 to John Bowling, of Ashton-in Makerfield, Wigan.
In addition, Mr Townson presented the second prize British Blue-sired bullock, which became a £1,300 purchase by Richard Critchley, of Claire Farm, Hutton, Preston, whose son Robert then stepped forward to pay top price in show at £1,750 for the third prize British Blue-sired heifer from the Akrigg farming family at Manor Farm, Cray, supreme champions at last year’s corresponding fixture.
In fact, their 2013 top price achiever is a full sister to the 2012 title winner, both being by the AI sire Eternal, out of home-bred Limousin-x-British Blue cows. The two Critchley generations – Robert with his wife Holly – will aim their Skipton acquisitions at this year’s Lancashire show circuit.
The Akriggs – father Chris and his sons Tom, John and Will – were also responsible for the second highest price of the day at £1,600 with their second prize Limousin-sired bullock, by a bull bred in Calderdale by David Balmforth.
The reserve supreme championship fell to one of the youngest show entries, a seven-month-old British Blue-sired heifer from reigning CCM Farmer of the Year Brian Lund, of Walshaw Farm, Walshaw, Hebden Bridge.
The home-bred class winner and female champion is by Deanhouse Danloy, locally bred in the Bradford area, out of a Limousin-x-Blue cow. She sold for £1,550 to Stephen Swales, of Melbourne, a regular buyer at the annual highlight, who also paid £1,600 for the second prize winner in the young handlers’ class, a British Blue shown by Rob Walker, of JC Walker & Son, Brennand Farm, Dunsop Bridge.
Mr Swales’ prize-winning 2012 Skipton purchases went on to land two championships at shows in the Goole area in the hands of his 17-year-old grandson Luke Swales, now an apprentice butcher at his father Andrew’s Knavesmire Butchers shop in Albermarle Road, York.
Luke, assisted by his grandparents, will follow a similar route this summer with the latest acquisitions, before they return to Knavesmire Butchers and take their place in the food chain as top-notch prime beef for customers’ Christmas tables.
Brian Lund was also responsible for the first prize winner in the young handlers’ class with another seven-month-old British Blue-sired heifer shown by his 14-year-old grandson Jack, a pupil at Calder High School.
It had similar breeding patterns to Mr Lund’s reserve supreme champion and emulated it on price in the sales ring when also selling for £1,550 to Pateley Bridge’s Andrew Fisher, who acts as a stockman and show steward for CCM.
The reserve female champion was the first prize any breed heifer, a British Blue from John and Gill Huck, of Church Farm, Hubberholme, which sold for £1,380 to Wagstaff Bros, of Sutton-on-the-Forest in Hambleton.
However, it was the second prize any breed British Blue heifer, again from the Walker family in Dunsop Bridge, that achieved top price in class at £1,500 when joining show judge John Mellin, of Hellifield. The Walkers also presented the third prize any other breed heifer, another British Blue, knocked down for £1,320 to Thompson Bros, of Pickering.
Further Walker family successes were the first prize Limousin-sired bullock, sold for £1,180 to the Read farming family in Horncastle, the third prize British Blue-sired bullock, knocked down at £1,360 to JB Eastwood, of Emley, Huddersfield, and the second prize British Blue-sired heifer, which became a further Wagstaff Bros. acquisition at £1,250. The same buyers also paid £1,060 for the second prize any other breed bullock, a British Blue from AB Woodhouse, of Clapham.
Jonathan Townley, of E&M Townley & Son, Clapham, was again prominent with three red rosette winners – the first prize any breed bullock, a Limousin, the first prize Limousin-sired bullock, which both became further JB Eastwood buys at £1,500 and £1,440 respectively, along with the first prize any other breed heifer, a British Blonde, sold for £1,200 to John Summers, of Clayton, Bradford, who also paid £1,200 for the third prize winner in the young handlers’ class, a British Blue shown by James Baldwin, of Hebden Bridge.
David and Linda Broadbent, of Midgley, Halifax, were again among the awards when presenting the first prize Limousin-sired heifer, sold for £1,180 to Matt and Ben Townsend, of Laneshawbridge, and the third prize any other breed heifer, a British Blonde, acquired for £1,180 by JC White, of Barnsley.
CR Fawcett, of Sandhutton, Thirsk, was a red rosette winner with the first prize any breed British Blonde bullock, a further Thompson Bros buy at £1,380, while the second prize any other breed heifer, another British Blonde, from Saddle End Farms, Chipping, fell for £1,150 to Kirkby Malham’s Jeff Burrows.
Show sponsors were Farmers Mart magazine, Laycocks Agricultural Chemists, Skipton, Huddersfield-based agricultural agent and CCM field officer Janet Sheard, West Marton fencing contractor Bob Lancaster and the Yorkshire & North East Branch of the British Charolais Cattle Society.
