THE Fawcett farming family from Barden notched a notable double when securing both red rosettes in the young bull classes at a special summer cattle show at Skipton Auction Mart last Wednesday.

Husband and wife Stephen and Tracey Fawcett, along with their daughter Samantha, of Fold House Farm, landed leading honours with a brace of home-bred pure white British Blue-cross youngsters.

The winner of the eight to 10 month class sold for £1,200 to York father-and-son farmers and butchers Steve and Anthony Swales, with the ten to 12 month class victor joining the same buyers for £1,300.

Both represented the leading young bull prices, the latter the day’s top call for a standalone entry.

The Fawcetts have proved a force to be reckoned with in the Skipton show cattle arena this year, with both Stephen and his brother John, who also farms in Barden, regularly sending out champions and other prize winners.

Fawcett livestock has always been popular with the Swales family, who at the latest fixture snapped up every single prize winner in the young bull show classes.

They added the second prize eight to10-month bull from Hubberholme’s John and Gill Huck at £1,040, along with the second and third prize winners in the ten to 12-month class from Hayley Baines, of Trawden, for £1,100, and Sheila Mason, of JH & SM Mason in Keasden, at £1,000.

Mr Swales Snr and his wife Barbara are planning to show the Fawcetts’ first prize younger bull at a high profile agricultural show in Birmingham later this year.

There were just three regular buyers of all the day’s prizewinners. Hanlith’s Jeff Burrow secured all three principals in the heifer show class – the red rosette winner and runner-up, again from the Masons and the Hucks respectively, both at £1,040 each, along with the third prize heifer from Peter and Edward Fox, of Clitheroe.

The Foxes also stepped up with the first prize bullock, which joined Stephen Eastwood, of Emley, Huddersfield, for £1,230, as did the runner-up, another Mason entry, at £1,070.

The fortnightly fixture attracted a turnout of 361 cattle, among them 88 young feeding bulls, 235 bullocks and heifers, 33 breeding cattle and five grazing cows.

Skipton Auction Mart’s livestock sales manager Ted Ogden said: “A cracking mid-summer sale saw a full attendance of buyers at the ringside.

“Young bulls averaged £915 across the board, while quality bullocks and heifers were keenly contested and, with grass in abundance, younger cattle again found customers in good heart. Another tidy show of breeding cattle met with a similar trade to the previous sale.”

Full details, including principal prices and averages, are at ccmauctions.com