REGULAR vendors and buyers again turned out for Skipton’s weekly Monday prime cattle sale, with the 28 under 30-month clean cattle on offer trading to an eye-catching high of £1,541, or 246.5p/kg, for a 625kg Limousin-cross heifer consigned by Jim Baines, of Trawden.

This was claimed by Keelham Farm Shop, which also bought the top gross price 635kg steer, a Blonde-cross from the Critchley family in Hutton, Preston, at £1,322, or 249.5p/kg. Keelham again arrived with a long shopping list, claiming ten cattle in total for its Skipton and Thornton shops.

The Critchleys also stepped up with the top price per kilo and second top price heifer, a 570kg Limousin-cross which made 258.5p/kg, or £1,473, when falling to Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop in Lancaster, who were again to the fore with three acquisitions.

Strong trade was reflected in the overall selling average of 218.35p/kg for 22 heifers and 230.48p/kg for five steers. Other butchers buyers were Skipton-based Stanforths with three, a brace for Ellisons Butchers in Cullingworth, and one for David Palmer, of Scarborough, again buying on behalf of S&J Quality Butchers in Easingwold.

A 575kg Montbelliarde-cross young bull from Gary and Gill Schofield, of Buckden, also did well when selling at £1,147, or 199.5p/kg.

The 30 culls cows on offer, many on the lean side now it’s the back end, saw similar trade on the week when selling to an overall average of £660.21 per head, or 102.49p/kg. Dairies with a modest amount of finish made 110p/kg, with an odd young cow selling to a top of 117.5p/kg.

At 3,017 head, Skipton sheep numbers were tighter on Monday, and as a direct result trade for the 2,739 prime lambs among then took a higher lift than most expected to record an overall selling average of 174.5p/kg, or £75.02 per head, representing a 14p/kg, or £5 per head rise on the week.

Generally, lambs were of a higher standard than the previous week and all classes were much better to sell, with the best end keenly contested.

Regular vendors Ellis Bros, of Addingham Moorside, took top price honours with two Beltex pens at £115 and £109 per head, and a day’s per kilo high of 231.9p. Bold sold to Kirklees buyer Thomas Shepherdson, of Slaithwaite.

In the Texel classes, Whalley father and son, Richard and Mark Ireland, presented a good run of lambs, achieving a pen high of £105, a price matched by another pen from Duncan Halliday, of Sowerby Bridge. Both were purchased by Kendalls Farmers Butchers for its shops in Pateley Bridge and Harrogate.

Bank Newton’s Anthony Hewetson sold Beltex lambs to £102, which figured among several acquisitions by Vivers Scotlamb in Annan. Mr Hewetson also chipped in with the top price £70 per head Swaledale lambs.

Decent lowland lambs were good to sell, the right types at the right weights making 185-195pkg, commercial sorts 170-180p, with nothing but hill-bred types under 165p. Heavy lambs also saw a nice trade, with 556 head scaling 46kg or more averaging 168p.

Hill lambs met a much sharper trade, with the best end £5 to £6 each up on the week. Mules sold to a high of £83 from Jack Berry, trading as JH Throup at Lower House, Silsden Moor, and also from Miles Greenwood, of Stanbury.

The 258 cast sheep were also a better trade on the week, up by £2 to £5 each. Cull ewes averaged £42.97 and cast rams £56.90.

Meanwhile, over 8,000 head of store lambs and breeding sheep were penned for sale at Skipton’s latest fortnightly Wednesday fixture, selling to an overall average of £50.57 per head.

Though of a more mixed quality than of late, strong, smart lowland lambs were a decent trade most of the day, with the top end selling into the late £60s and mid-£70s, and a high of £86 per head for a Beltex pen from the Heseltine family in Bolton Abbey.

Topping the Texel prices at £71.50 and £70.50 with two Texel pens sold late in the day was John Grayston, of Steeton. Further pens sold into the early to mid-£60s, while the strongest end of medium keep lambs were making up towards £60.

Longer keep and more commercial lambs didn’t fare quite as well on price, though the better end of the Mule wethers made over £50, with longer keep types mid to late £40s.

The next fortnightly sheep turnout on Wednesday, November 1, features the annual Lingfields Fair sale, with up to 1,500 breeding sheep and gimmer lambs expected.