SKIPTON Auction Mart’s first monthly prime cattle show of 2019 produced a first-ever title win at the venue for North Craven father and son, Francis and Andrew Smith, of Lodge Farm, Masongill, above Ingleton close to the Yorkshire-Lancashire border.

The hill farming duo also picked up the reserve championship for good measure, both with Limousin-cross entries, bought in as sucklers and further improved and finished on the farm.

Show judge Frank Wrathall, of Gisburn, tapped out the Smiths’ first prize 500kg heifer as overall champion, just pipping their red rosette-winning 580kg bullock, which stood reserve champion, with the principals joining two regular butcher buyers at Skipton. The victor made £1,387, or a section-topping 277.5p/kg, when claimed by Alan Beecroft of Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop and Restaurant in Lancaster Leisure Park, though it was the overall runner-up that headed the gross prices at £1,482, or 255.5p/kg, when falling to James Robertshaw, of Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton, Bradford. A total of 28 under 30-month clean cattle were penned for sale. Countrystyle Meats took home four, also among them the highest priced per kilo steer, a 520kg Limousin-cross that stood second in its show class at 260.5p/kg, or £1,355, and was presented by regular vendors, the Critchley family, from Hutton, Preston.