KEELHAM Farm Shop remains on track to purchase every single monthly prime cattle champion at Skipton Auction Mart after again snapping up the title winner at the November show and sale on Monday.

James Robertshaw, co-owner of Keelham Farm Shop, Thornton, Bradford, was once again on hand to secure the victor, the first prize under 30-month British Blue-cross heifer shown by Trawden’s Jim Baines. Weighing in at 465kg, the champion sold for the day’s leading by-weight price of 279.5p/kg, or £1,300.

Mr Robertshaw bought five prime cattle in total, also paying the top gross price of £1,626, or 244.5p/kg, for the first prize 665kg bullock and reserve champion from Simon Bennett, of Delph Farm, Silsden Moor.

To make it an unprecedented prime cattle champion’s clean sweep for the entire year, Keelham - which hopes to open its new shop in Skipton early next year - now needs only to secure the supreme champion at the climax of Skipton’s 2014 primestock year, the annual Christmas showcase, on Sunday, November 30.

Back at the November show, Mr Robertshaw was far from finished, as he also went on to acquire the prime lamb champions and achieve yet another prime time buyer’s double at Skipton. He again paid the day’s top price of £128 each, or 284.4p/kg, for the victorious pen of five 45kg Beltex-cross-Rouge lambs from Richard Frankland, of Frankland Farms in Rathmell.

Mr Bennett was also responsible for the second prize steer, another British Blue-cross, which joined Stanforths Butchers in Skipton for £1,360, or 234.5p/kg.

Bernard Simpson, of Heathfield, Pateley, was again to the fore with the second prize Limousin-cross heifer, which fell to Saltaire butcher Dick Binns and, at £1,418, or 267.5p/kg, was the top-price female.

Supplementing the 20 clean cattle sold on the day were 56 cast cattle, which figured in their own show, in which champion was the first prize beef-bred entry, a Limousin from Stephen Towler, of Malham Moor, which sold for a day’s cull cow high of £876, or 122.5p/kg.

The first prize dairy-bred cow and reserve champion, a black and white from Malcolm Gratton, of Warsill, Ripley, sold for £758. Cull cows averaged £688.29 per head, or 87.62p/kg. Several Belted Galloways were also among the entry, with a mature bull from Chris Ryder in Blubberhouses making £876.

Returning to the prime lamb arena, reserve prime lamb champions for the third consecutive month were Tosside’s Trevor and Clive Robinson with a pen of five 41kg Beltex-cross which sold for £106 per head, while the third prize 40kg Continental pen from Richard and Mark Ireland in Whalley also achieved three figures when selling for exactly £100 each to Bowood Yorkshire Lamb in Busby Stoop.

The same buyers also bought all three prize-winning pens of Suffolk prime lambs, paying £75 per head for the first and third prize winners from, respectively, Charles and Richard Kitching, of Threshfield, and Paul and Janet Bolland, of Airton, and £78.50 each for the runners-up from Gargrave’s James Earnshaw.

Bordley’s Kevin Huck again made his mark with the first prize pen of horned lambs, 37kg Swaledales sold for £59 per head to Mick Etherington, of Bingley, with the first prize pen of 53kg Mules from the Booth family in Feizor knocked down to Swaledale Foods in Skipton at £78 each.

The huge entry of 4,506 prime lambs met with a ready market when finishing a significant 6p/kg up on the week to average almost 172p/kg across the board (SQQ 176.7p), or £74.88 per head.

“This was a great result considering the increasing percentage of Mule and horned lambs that figure among the entry week on week. Trade is now back on a par with levels achieved at the corresponding period last year,” said Skipton’s livestock sales manager Ted Ogden.

With 531 cast sheep also on parade, cull ewes met with similar trade for meated types, but anything displaying too much fat was a shade easier, as were lightweight horned ewes.

The overall average was £49.46 per head, led at £104.50 for a Suffolk pen from Aimee Beresford, of Halton West. Cast rams averaged £69.50 each.