| 2018-07-20 |    |
Harehills Herd Hat-trick at Craven Dairy Auction
Sally Wellock’s Harehills pedigree Holstein Friesian herd at West House Farm, Oldfield, near Oakworth, rattled up a hat-trick of consecutive championship wins at July’s second Craven Dairy Auction show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart. (Monday, July 16)
Sally Wellock won her latest title with another newly calven heifer from her long-established Akretta family of milkers. This one, Harehills Akretta 754, was by the Genus sire, De-Su Topsy, and came to market 16 days calved and giving 26 litres. Picked out by show judge Andrew Townsend, of Southfield, Burnley, the victor was bagged for £1,650, joint top price, by Robert Metcalfe, of Brearton, Otley.
Pictured with the frontrunners at the second July
Craven Dairy Auction are, from left, Angie Lockwood, of regular
sponsors National Milk Records, reserve champion Wilson Stewart,
champion Sally Wellock and judge Andrew Townsend.
photo: Moule Media, Skipton
For good measure, the West Yorkshire dairy farmer also presented two further prize winners from her four-strong line-up of milkers. One was the first prize newly calven cow, Harehills Magpie 629, by another Genus dairy bull, Autumn-Ridge Matson. The seven days-calved 36 litre third calver made £1,100 when also joining Gargrave’s Colin Whitelock.
The other was the third prize newly calven heifer, Harehills Lobelia 753, another well-bred eight days-calved daughter of De-Su Topsy. The 27 litre heifer was knocked down for £1,480, again to Mr Metcalfe.
Repeating his reserve championship success at the opening July show and sale was Wilson Stewart, who runs the Straidahanna Holstein Friesian pedigree herd at Low Hesket in the Eden Valley near Carlisle. His second prize 22 days-calved 30 litre heifer, Straidahanna Brady Barbara, also made joint top call of £1,650 when becoming a third Robert Metcalfe acquisition.
Newly calven heifers averaged £1,502
per head. Dairy auctioneer Sam Bradley noted:
“With the continuing
dry weather, future feed stocks are now beginning to become a concern,
despite farm gate price increases in milk.”
Solid trade for rearing calves
A much larger turnout of 62 dairy-bred rearing calves at the weekly
Monday sale sold for some heady prices, with an increased number
of black and whites doing notably well to average £80.64 per head,
with a top of £140 for a strong bull calf from the same day’s dairy
show judge, Andrew Townsend, of Southfield, Burnley. He also sold
Longhorn heifer and bull calves at £160 each.
Of the Continentals, the leading performers on price yet again were Church Farm Enterprises, of Burton Leonard, with British Blue-cross heifers at £430 and £420, along with a same way bred bull calf at £400. The overall Continental-cross selling average was £306.33 per head.
A solid contingent of native calves saw Aberdeen-Angus bulls not over priced when averaging £258.75 per head, with heifers a straight trade at £170 across the board. The top price native was a £265 Angus bull calf from Paul and Janet Bolland, of Airton. The section produced an overall average of £188.40.
The first sale of stirks in the new Stirton ring attracted a large crowd at the ringside and produced a straight trade for the 16 head on offer, with Lincolnshire vendor Alan Twell the standout performers on price when topping the sale at £600 with a four-month-old British Blue-cross steer, also heading the heifer stirk prices at £500 with both Blue and Limousin entries, plus another Limousin steer stirk at the same price. All entries averaged £478 per head.
