SKIPTON Auction Mart’s Sam Bradley has been shortlisted for ‘New Auctioneer of the Year’ in the 2018 Farmers Guardian ‘Mart’s the Heart’ Awards.

The awards shine the spotlight on the vital role auctions and auctioneers play within the UK livestock industry and Craven Cattle Marts is no stranger to success in the annual highlight - livestock sales manager Ted Ogden is the reigning ‘Auctioneer of the Year.’

Sam, who lives in Addingham, joined the mart as junior auctioneer in 2012. He hails from a farming background, being raised on the family farm near Bishop Auckland, where his parents, Mark and Jane Bradley, breed pedigree Welsh pigs, pedigree Aberdeen-Angus cattle and commercial ewes.

Sam attended Harper Adams University College in Shropshire, which involved a year’s work placement at Colchester Livestock Market, leaving with a BSc Honours degree in Rural Enterprise and Land Management.

He then spent time in New Zealand, working on a beef and sheep-finishing farm near Wellington, before joining Craven Cattle Marts, where Sam has since become both a valuable and valued member of the three-strong team of auctioneers, headed up by general manager Jeremy Eaton. He also assists with commentary at Gargrave and Kilnsey Agricultural Shows and at the Great Yorkshire Show.