Skipton Auction Mart: Weekly round-up

These were the leading gross price of £1,416, or 248.5p/kg, for a 570kg Limousin-cross steer from Malham Moor’s Bill Cowperthwaite, along with the top price by weight, a 535kg Limousin heifer from the Critchley family in Hutton, Preston.

The top gross price heifer, a 565kg Limousin-cross consigned by Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching, fell for £1,381, or 244.5p/kg, to Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton and was one of two purchases.

Other retail butcher buyers of the 13 under 30-month clean cattle were Skipton-based Stanforths with a brace, plus one for Sandersons Butchers in Baxenden.

A handful of commercial cattle sold well, with thick meated 450kg heifers headed up at 232.5p/kg, along with a 540kg Limousin steer at 213.5p/kg.

The 26 cast cattle on offer included a fair percentage of lean, plain cull cows, which produced a somewhat deceiving overall selling average of £626.58 per head, or 101.34p/kg. Cows carrying finish sold at 110-116.5p/kg for dairies, beef crosses making to 142.5p/kg.

The same morning’s weekly turnout of 62 rearing calves continued to prove good to sell, with no shortage of customers for Continental youngsters, both bulls and heifers, which peaked at £412 for a 36-day-old Charolais-cross bull calf from David Smith, of Sutton-in-Craven, Rob Marshall, of Dacre, also doing well at £400 with a 41-day-old British Blue-cross bull. The overall Continental-cross selling average was £271.

Black and white calves, if well reared to around 28 days, met a particularly good trade, with the younger end receiving plenty of support from local stirk rearers, who also showed keen interest in younger sire-identified calves sourced from coloured dairy herds. The section produced a top price of £250 for a black and white bull calf and an overall average of £76.

Native calves were equally well sold for their age group, selling to £180 for an Aberdeen-Angus bull calf, with a section average of £151.

Ever-popular Agri-Trader Auctions were staged at Skipton Auction Mart, on Saturday, again attracting many hundreds of lots from multiple vendors, complemented by numerous buyers who were once more out in their droves seeking the many and varied bargains to be had.

Offered for sale were 262 machinery items, 343 lots of reclamation and salvage, 150 of stone and timber, 61 items of furniture, plus 107 lots – or 500 items - of nursery garden stock and plants.

Of the four-figure prices achieved in the machinery section, topping the day at £7,000 was a livestock trailer, with a tractor also making £6,800 and a baler £4,250.

In the stone section, stone troughs were again in ready supply and demand, selling to highs of £900 and £510, with a large stone slab also doing extremely well at £720, while stone gate posts made to £540. A stone bird bath flew away at £170.

Of the plants, shrubs and trees on offer, Magnolias bloomed to £23, with both Photinia and

Golden Salix hitting highs of £21.

Also on the same day’s agenda was the mart’s latest monthly Saturday livestock collective for stirks, weaned calves and young store cattle, when solid trade and a packed ringside ensured full clearance of the 68 head of cattle forward.

Steers sold to a top of £1,050 for a British Blue, with the breed also responsible for the £920 top price bull, while heifer prices peaked at £715, this for a Limousin. A Pigmy wether goat also made £30.

The next Saturday livestock sale on September 7 also features the annual Skipton Native Stock Breeder Auctions, with shows and sales for rare, minority and native breeds cattle, sheep and goats, along with another seasonal Craven Feather Auctions poultry show and sale.

Agri-Trader Auctions, plus another livestock collective, return on Saturday, October 12. Entries close of October 7.

A whopping 5,796 head of sheep went under the hammer at Skipton Auction Mart’s latest Wednesday fortnightly sale, by far the lion’s share store lambs.

The 5,689 stores sold was up by 900 head on last year’s corresponding fixture, complemented by a rise in the overall selling average of £3.32 on the year to level at £58.42 per head, said to reflect the smaller lambs on offer compared to the previous fortnight.

A solid attendance of buyers from the Eastern, Midland and Northern counties of England, together with several Welsh purchasers, set about their job and it was the stronger, smarter end that got away nicely, even taking into account the easing of prime prices of late.

Best sorts sold in the £70s, with Stuart Horn, of Kelbrook, leading the way with Texel and Beltex pens at £79 and £78. Strong or smart skinned stores sold in the mid to late £60s and medium types in the late £50s and early £60s.The large number of smaller lambs on offer saw these ease in price, with £52 to £56 the norm.

Quite a few Mule wethers sold to a top of £61 each from James Hall, of Darnbrook, others generally fetching in the early to mid £50s.

The opening sale of breeding ewes saw a small entry of 107 head, though these met a very fast trade and the mart says it could easily have sold several hundred more, a point for potential future vendors to note.

Suffolk-cross ewes led the prices, with Geoff Carr, of Gisburn, selling correct ewes to £130, Peter Houseman, of Padside, 2&3 shears at £129 and T Waring, from Longridge, 3 crop at £128.

Texels topped at £122 for 2 crop and £120 for correct, again from Messrs Houseman and Waring respectively, while a nice run of Mules from Mike Allen, of Staithes, sold to £120 for 2 crop and £106 for 3 crop. A Herdwick teaser ram from Ken Dickinson, of Foulridge, also caught the eye at £180.

Skipton’s next fortnightly sheep fixture on Wednesday, August 7, is again expected to attract another large entry of between 6,000 and 7,000 store lambs, with a prize show and sale for Beltex-cross lambs. Also on a hectic day’s agenda is the Lingfields Summer Breeding Sheep Fair for up to 1,000 breeding ewes and rams.