ANOTHER nice Monday turnout of 20 under 30-month prime cattle saw six of them fall to weekly buyer Alan Beecroft, of Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop & Restaurant in Lancaster Leisure Park.

Five of his tally were the highest priced per kilo entries, including the two joint top price 257.5p/kg Limousin-cross heifers - one at 535kg from the Critchley family in Hutton, which grossed £1,378, the second at 545kg from Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching, which also headed the gross prices at £1,403.

The top price steer, a 570kg British Blue-cross also supplied by the Kitchings, sold to another weekly buyer, Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton, for 245.5p/kg, or £1,399.

A higher quality turnout of 25 cull cows met a sharp trade and as seems to be the norm these days a three-quarter meat steaking cow looked well sold alongside the heavy dairies, which were 110p/kg-plus.

In fact, the lowest priced plain cow was 87.5p/kg, with the section producing an overall selling average of 106.75p/kg, or £715.86 per head.

At 2,416 head, Spring lamb numbers were the highest to date this season at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday sale, though with it came the anticipated reduction in average prices at £78.99 per head, or 182.7p/kg.

Heavy lambs were in sharp demand throughout, with 453 of the entry weighing 46-52kg and themselves averaging 187.3p/kg. Top call of £118 per head, or 268p/kg, fell to 44kg Beltex from Alistair Jenkinson, of Langbar, selling to Hartshead Meat Co in Mossley.

Silsden’s Andrew Throup sold 51kg Texel at £108 each to Kendalls Farm Butchers in Pateley Bridge and Harrogate, who also paid £105 for another pen of 49kg Texel from Tom Hill and Ruby Wright, of Doncaster.

Nice handyweight lambs traded around 190p to £2 per kilo, with commercial sorts commanding 175-185p/kg.

A large turnout of cast sheep – 836 ewes and rams - sold to a full company of buyers, with the lowland breeds meeting a very sharp trade, and hill ewes producing an overall cull ewe average £60.24.

Bell Busk’s Brian Moorhouse claimed top call of £131 per head with a Texel pen, followed at £124.50 by Julie Robison, of Cragg Vale, while £115.50 per head prices were achieved by both Mike Scholey, of York, and Ian Hammond, from Glasshouses.

The best North of England Mules made from £75 to a top of £80, these consigned by Silsden’s Jeff Throup.

The mart’s fortnightly Wednesday cattle sale attracted another strong entry of 525 head.

While the 90 young feeding bulls met a varied trade, some stronger and better types flew away at £1,000 to £1,200, topping at £1,235 for a Limousin-cross from Silsden Moor’s Simon Bennett. The top price pen of three Simmental-cross young bulls from RD Elliott, of Tadcaster, each made £1,065. The overall Continental-cross selling average was £923.

The 42 feeding cows penned for sale helped maintain recent good trade. Short keep cows for hard feed generally made £950 to £1,150, with KA&HL Fawcett & Son, of Barden, Halifax-based L Bamforth & Son and M Mallinson in Mount Tabor all realising top side of £1,100 for cows.

Nice handy grazing cows made £700-£900, with plainer types in the £500s and £600s. The overall average levelled at £819, including a few lightweight lean types and a Jersey-cross at £190.

A larger turnout of 251 stores included some good runs of stronger cattle. Bullocks sold to a top of £1,210 for a British Blue-cross from Broughton’s Jeremy Taylor, closely followed at £1,200 for a Limousin-cross from EW&E Lucas, of Blackburn. Bishop Thornton’s Andrew Fawcett was responsible for the top price £1,055 per head pen with three Charolais-cross bullocks. Continental-cross bullocks averaged £940 and natives £849.

Of the store heifers, a Charolais-cross trio from P Coates Farmers in Barrowford sold to a top of £1,270, with Cheadle vendor Craig Schofield also doing well with a brace of 14-month-old Limousin-cross at £1,210 and £1,130.

The top price pen of three Limousin-cross heifers from David and Catherine Towler in Grindleton each made £1,090, with the section producing an overall Continental-cross selling average of £897.

The 142 breeding cattle on offer comprised a reduction of mainly Simmental-cross sucklers consigned from JW Barker & Son, of Airton, and the family’s consignment of 2011 to 2016-born cattle was well supported and very good trade for a run of genuine hard-working suckler cattle. All outfits sold to four-figure highs, peaking at £1,620 twice for 2013 and 2014 cows with Charolais-cross bull calves at foot.