TOP price of £2,200 in Gisburn Auction Marts’ young handlers’ over-wintering competition was paid by well-known Long Preston cattle exhibitors John Mellin and Clare Cropper.

More than doubling its November purchase price, was the 418kg, 10-month- old Limousin cross heifer from Bree-Ann Fletcher, Heywood. Having gained 1.12kg daily, it achieved the highest profit in the competition of £1,190 (sale price less purchase price). But, it was a 14-month-old British Blue cross heifer in the hands of 14-year-old exhibitor Bethany Duerden, Blacko, Nelson, which won the championship. A member of Pendle YFC, she topped the line-up of first prize winners with the heifer she had bought in the last eligible sale in November. Tipping the scales at 408kg on show day it had achieved a daily liveweight gain of 0.756kg over the winter and went on to sell at £1,440 to J Feather, Keighley, leaving Beth with the second highest profit of £685.

Judges Jimmy Wood, Bowland Foods, and last year’s competition winner Lucy Spiby, chose as their reserve a 22-month-old Simmental cross steer shown by Ben Nutter, Newchurch-in-Pendle, also a Pendle YFC member.

The steer , bought in mid-November had topped the show class for bona-fide YFC members, a class judged on additional criteria, with Ben picking up the George T. Bargh trophy.