ON one of their occasional forays into the prime cattle show arena at Skipton Auction Mart, Yorkshire Dales father and son farmers, John and Joe Fawcett, achieved a notable championship and reserve championship double at the July show with a brace of home-bred British Blue-cross heifers.

The Fawcetts, of Dale Head Farm, Barden, who are no strangers to success in Skipton’s store cattle show arena, took pole positions on the prime podium for a change with heifers by a bull acquired from Thirsk’s Stephen Potter and used successfully for the past five years.

The 520kg victor, out of a Limousin-cross cow, sold for top price per kilo of 278.5p, or a section-topping gross of £1,448, to Red Rose retail butcher George Cropper, who runs Sandersons Butchers in Baxenden.

The 480kg reserve champion, this one out of a Blonde-cross cow, sold for 254.5p/kg, or £1,222, to Kirkby Malham’s Jeff Burrows.

The first prize steer was presented by another father and son farming duo, Francis and Andrew Smith, who trade as F&B Smith at Lodge Farm, Masongill, midway between Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale.

Their 525kg Limousin-cross was one of two prime cattle purchased by another regular Lancashire retail butcher buyer Tim Hamlet for his family-run Hamlets Butchers in Garstang, at a section by-weight top of 263.5p/kg, or £1,383.

Gross prices peaked at £1,479, or 259.5p/kg, for a British Blue-cross steer from the prolific Critchley beef farming family in Hutton, Preston, one of six acquisitions on the day by regular Skipton buyer, Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop in Lancaster.

Keelham Farm Shop, another leading buyer, also took home half a dozen cattle for its Skipton and Thornton shops, among them the third prize Aberdeen-Angus-cross heifer from TWH Assets in Selby at £1,339, or 250.5p/kg.

The third prize Blonde-cross steer from Threshfield brothers, Charles and Richard Kitching, sold for £1,389, or 231.5p/kg, to Skipton-based Stanforths Butchers, which claimed four in total. Another retail butcher buyer competing for the increased entry of 35 under 30-month clean cattle was Kitsons for its north-east retail outlets.

Cull cows, 35 in total, maintained recent values, with the variation in average - £682.69 per head, or 109.18p/kg – put down to higher numbers of lean cattle now coming forward, possibly brought on by current weather conditions.

Cattle carrying finish were 120p/kg-plus among the diaries, which sold to highs of £966 and 127.5p/kg for black and whites from, respectively, Robert Metcalfe, of Brearton, Otley, and the Carr family in Dunsop Bridge.

Beef-bred cull cows peaked at £1,186, or 159.5p/kg, for a Limousin from John and Claire Mason’s Oddacres herd in Embsay, while a single mature Limousin bull from the Hall family in Gargrave made a handy £1,874, or 157.5p/kg.