SKIPTON Auction Mart’s opening Saturday Agri-Trader and livestock collective sales of 2015 were quieter than is usual due to the adverse weather conditions.

However, there was still plenty on offer for those who braved the elements, with the day featuring 155 stirks, weaned calves and young store cattle, 141 lots of caged poultry and wildfowl, 326 machinery items, 299 reclaim and salvage lots, and 112 furniture items.

The leading prices were in the machinery section, with a top price of £4,200 for a Belle skid steer, £2,500 for a 1,300-gallon slurry tanker, £2,350 for a rota-spreader and £1,700 for a tipping trailer.

Items of stone also sold well, with £600 paid for a consignment of stone flags and £300 for a stone trough. A Windsor chair made £95, while a 9ft church pew sold away at £65.

In the cattle sale, trade was described as excellent, notably for bullocks.

This fixture is attracting increasing numbers of good types of growing-on cattle, with a notable trend towards alternative dairy breeds such as MRI, Brown Swiss and Fleckvieh, noted for their low-cost diets.

Steers sold to a high of £875 for a British Blue, young bulls to a top of £770 for a Blonde, with heifers peaking at £990 for a Galloway.

Sheep dog pups sold to £150 and Alapacas to £60, while in the poultry sale a pair of Silver Laced Wynadotte sold for £45, with Blackrock laying pullets making £36 and £30, Rhode Island Red pullets £35, Vorwerk pullets £28 and Maran laying pullets £26.

The ever-popular weekend fixtures are set to continue in 2015. Agri-Trader sales take place bi-monthly, while Saturday sales of stirks, weaned calves and young store cattle will continue to operate on a monthly basis.

Dates and details can be found at ccmauctions.com