A BUSY bank holiday Monday sales programme at Skipton Auction Mart featured the April prime cattle show, when championship honours fell to Pendle’s Ben Townsend with a pure white British Blue-cross heifer.

Mr Townsend, who farms at Barnside Hall Farm,Laneshawbridge, is a regular vendor and buyer at his local auction mart, from where he had earlier purchased and further improved his latest prime cattle champion, which was bred in Dunsop Bridge by Edward and John Parkinson.

Weighing in at 555kg, the title winner sold for a price-topping £1,484.63, or 267.5p/kg, to Hailifax meat wholesaler Gerald Medcalf, a regular buyer of Townsend champions and prizewinners at Skipton.

Another regular Red Rose vendor, Trawden’s Jim Baines, was responsible for the first prize Blonde-cross steer, which headed the by-weight class prices at 241.5p/kg, or £1,232, when falling to regular buyers Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton, Bradford.

Keelham made three further prize-winning acquisitions - the second prize steer, a Limousin from Brian Lund, of Walshaw, Hebden Bridge, which topped the per head class prices at £1,364, or 225.5p/kg, and, from the same vendor, the second prize heifer, another Limousin, knocked down at £1,288, or 204.5p/kg.

Keelham, which remains on target to open its brand-new farm shop in Gargrave Road, Skipton, this summer, also paid £1,297, or 229.5/kg, for the third prize steer, another British Blue-cross from Malcolm Metcalfe, of Baldersby Park.

A smaller turnout of 16 cull cows sold at an overall average just short of £690 per head, which was up on the week, though the 107.54p/kg average remained unchanged. Top price of £900, or 129.5p/kg, went to a Limousin from W&M Hebron, of Clayton, Bradford, with regular vendor Robert Metcalfe, of Brearton, Otley, heading the dairy-bred prices with a black and white sold for £829.