HISTORY was made at Skipton Auction Mart’s Christmas show and sale of prime cattle when Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton, Bradford, paid a show-topping £3,164 for the supreme champion to make it an unprecedented clean sweep of 12 successive prime beef title-winning purchases.

It’s a feat that has never before been seen at the venue and one James Robertshaw, co-owner of Keelham Farm Shop, was hoping he might pull off, although he had to fight off strong competition.

The victor, a 565kg Limousin-sired bullock, out of a British Blue cow, was shown by the Fawcett family, of Sand Hutton, York.

York farmers dominated the show, with the reserve championship awarded to the first prize 670kg British Blue-cross heavyweight heifer from Willie Timm, of TWH Farming, Easingwold, which sold for £2,044 to co-judge Joe Woolley.

Keelham also secured four further red rosette winners: a 610kg British Blue-cross heifer from Mark and Elaine Hartley, of Roughlee, for £1,781; a 630kg Limousin-cross from Matt Tomlinson, of Muggington, at £1,751; a 515kg British Blue-cross heifer from Sheila Mason’s Keasden herd, for £1,648; and a 530kg Shorthorn from Clare Cropper and John Mellin, of Long Preston, at £1,298.

On a day that saw leading independent retail butchers and meat wholesalers compete for the cream of the region’s prime cattle, Mr Woolley made four other purchases: a 615kg Limousin-cross from John Stephenson in Bordley at £1,814; a 690kg Blonde-cross steer from the Stoney family in Pateley Bridge at £1,759; a 740kg Limousin-cross steer from Mark and Elaine Hartley, of Roughlee, for £1,776; and a 580kg British Blue-cross shown by Fiona Jowett and bred by Janet Sheard in Almondbury, for £1,566.

Clare Cropper and John Mellin, of Mill House Farm, Long Preston, had a good day when presenting both the reserve champion male and female. The former was a 595kg steer that finished runner-up in the supreme champion’s show class after also becoming reserve British Blue male at both the English Winter Fair and Countryside Live.

It sold for £2,052 to D and A Gregory and Sons Butchers in Bacup. They also purchased two further Cropper-Mellin British Blue-cross heifer prize winners, their second prize 525kg entry at £1,575, and the red rosette-winning 445kg heifer for £1,379.

The same vendors were also responsible for the first prize 525kg British Blue-cross steer, which sold for £1,548 to Kitsons Butcher for its shops in Northallerton and Stockton-on-Tees.

Also at Skipton, Kitsons bought both the second and third prize heavyweight Limousin-cross steers, the 650kg runner-up from Chris Crowther, of Greenfield, Oldham, for £1,885, and the third placed 640kg entry from Fridaythorpe’s Gavin Boocock for £1,760.

They also acquired two further Chris Crowther British Blue-cross entries, a 690kg steer for £1,690, or 245p/kg, and a 590kg heifer at £1,563, along with a 655kg British Blue-cross heifer from the Jowett family in Thornton, Bradford, for £1,703.

Cropper and Mellin’s reserve female champion, a 550kg British Blue-cross heifer, which also won a special prize for the best animal from a regular CCM vendor, returned home.

Matt Tomlinson showed the first prize heavyweight 565kg Limousin heifer, which sold for £1,695 to butcher John Summers for his shop in Clayton, Bradford.

The third prize 465kg Limousin-cross steer from Trawden’s Jim Baines sold for £1,636 to Stanforths Butchers in Skipton, who also paid £1,723 for a second 565kg heifer from Mr Baines, as well as adding a 625kg Limousin-cross steer from Willie Timms at £1,500.

The same vendor also sent out the third prize winner in the native breed class, a 465kg Aberdeen Angus heifer sold for £976 to Hartshead Meats in Ashton-Under-Lyne.

Bolster Moor Farm Shop in Golcar, made two purchases, a 650kg British Blue-cross heifer from Jonathan Shorrock, of Cliviger, for £1,625, and a Limousin-cross heifer from the Fawcett family for £1,725.

Saltaire butcher Richard Binns bought a 610kg Limousin-cross steer again from the Jowett family for £1,586, or 260p/kg.