KEELHAM Farm Shop embarked on yet another buying spree at Skipton Auction Mart’s February prime shows, acquiring both the champion and top gross price prime cattle, along with the champion and reserve champion pens of prime lambs.

Keelham’s James Robertshaw paid 265.5p/kg, or £1,261, for the first prize and title-winning 475kg British Blue-cross heifer from Malcolm Metcalfe, of Baldersby Park.

Keelham then paid the highest per head price of £1,519, or 257.5p/kg, for a 590kg Limousin cross steer, also from the Metcalfes’ pen, adding the top price per head 600kg British Blue-cross heifer from Amy Bradley, of Hartwith, at £1,485, or 247.5p/kg.

Mr Robertshaw then turned his attention to the prime lamb ringside, paying £102 per head, or 231p/kg, for the champion pen of five 44kg Beltex-cross lambs, from Ellis Bros, of Addingham Moorside, adding the reserve champion 38kg Beltex-cross pen from Paul Simpson, of Forest Becks, Bolton-by-Bowland, at £114 per head.

The award-winning lambs will go on sale at Keelham’s two shops in Skipton and Thornton from this weekend, while the prime cattle principals will be prepared for sale during National Butchers Week, which runs from March 14 to 20.

Mr Robertshaw said: “We appreciate how important it is to source the best tasting meat we can for our customers, not only award winners at monthly shows, but every week. Our customers keep coming back because the meat we buy tastes great, is really affordable, and we can tell them about how it’s sourced from just up the road.”

Back with the prime cattle, top price per kg was the second prize Continental heifer, a 515kg British Blue-cross from Roger Wood, of Cross Roads, which sold to D and A Gregory and Sons in Bacup, for 270.5p/kg, or £1,393.

Carleton’s James Drake presented the first prize and reserve champion 580kg Limousin-cross bullock, which was purchased at £1,430, or 246p/kg, by Mick Etherington, of Eldwick, on behalf of John Kearns Butchers in Shipley.

Skipton’s weekly turnout of 2,748 prime sheep comprised 2,535 old season lambs. Quality lambs met a very sharp trade, with no less than 43 separate pens exceeding £100 per head, while 250p/kg was topped on 31 separate occasion.

The day’s by-weight top of 302.7p/kg, or £112 per head, fell to a Beltex pen from Martin and Val Brown, of Leyburn, bought by Worsley Wholesale Butchers in Dewsbury.

Paul Simpson also hit 300p/kg, or £114 per head, with another Beltex offering sold to Vivers Scotlamb in Annan, who also snapped up the third prize Continental-cross 39kg Beltex pen from Trawden’s Hayley Baines for the leading per head price of £116, or 295p/kg.

The overall average for every lamb sold was 189p/kg, or £79.21 per head, a significant increase on the previous Monday’s 171.24p/kg, or £71.89.

Back in the show classes, all three prize-winning Suffolk pens sold for £88 per head. The 43kg red rosette winners from Charles and Richard Kitching, of Threshfield, fell to the Millstones Restaurant and Mill 67 in Felliscliffe, Harrogate.

The 58kg runners-up from John and Claire Wright, of Airton, joined Andrew Atkinson, also from Felliscliffe, while the 45kg third prize winners and class top price 207p/kg pen from Stephen Dorey, of Newark, were bought by Woodhead Bros Butchers in Colne.

Mr Atkinson also paid £69 per head for the first prize pen of ten 41kg Mule lambs from the Ryder family in Haverah Park, Harrogate, with the 47kg runners-up from Kevin Wilson, of Blubberhouses, selling for £78.50 each to Hellifield’s Paul Watson and the third prize 44kg pen, again from the Kitchings, for £75 per head to Welsh wholesale buyer St Merryn Foods.