Monday's auction round-up at Skipton Auction Mart

In the primestock section, cattle continued to sell well, with ten of the 21 under 30-month entries making 260p/kg or above. Top price per kilo of 273.5p (£1,491) fell to a 545kg Limousin-cross heifer from mart regulars, Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching, claimed by Kitsons & Sons Butchers for its retail butchers shops in the north-east, including the flagship Five Houses Farm Shop and Kitchen in Crathorne.

Weekly buyer Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton bought another three, two of which were among the leading price performers and both consigned by North Craven father and son, Francis and Andrew Smith from Masongill. First up was the top price per kilo steer, a 560kg Limousin-cross at 269.5p/kg (£1,509), followed by a 580kg Blonde-cross heifer at 265.5p/kg (£1,539).

Eldwick’s Mick Etherington claimed the two leading gross price Limousin-cross entries, a 595kg heifer at £1,568 (263.5p/kg) and a 590kg steer at £1,566 (263.5p/kg). This duo again came from the top-notch Kitching pen.

Cattle with finish were scarce among the dairy-bred cull cows penned for sale and they met a similar trade on the week, steaking cows selling to 108.5p/kg and worn cows making 80p/kg and upwards. Beef cows forward were mostly non-assured heavies, selling to highs of £1,098 and £910 (both 125.5p/kg) for a brace of Aberdeen-Angus crosses from Gary Newburn, of Bailiff Bridge.

Cull cows averaged £704.51, or 106.01p/kg, with a single mature Angus bull from Chris Harrison, of Elslack, making £1,030 (109.5p/kg).

A total of 3,389 prime lambs were sold and, as expected, lowland handy-weight sheep were keenly contested and short of requirements, as were smart Beltex types, with an electric trade for runs of quality hard fed types.

At the top end of the scale, Skipton regular Nigel Boynton, from Ripon, took top price honours when selling a quartet of Beltex pens weighing from 45-49kg at £146, £140, £133 and £127.50. All four were knocked down to regular wholesale buyers Hartshead Meats in Mossley, Greater Manchester, who also paid the top per kilo price of 339p (£139) for another 41kg Beltex pen from Jonathan Townley in Clapham. A dozen pens made 300p/kg or more, another 52 pens selling at 250-295p/kg.

Having thrived during the autumn, grass-fed commercial heavy lambs over 45kg were plentiful in number and coming under price pressure, especially for the more commercial types, with both meat market and catering demand suffering as a result of local lockdowns both at home and abroad.

Hill-bred lambs were harder work, again for the very heavies, though handier weight sorts, especially those farm-assured, looked nicely sold. North of England Mules peaked at £88.50 for a pen of 26 from Keasden’s James and Simon Garth. The overall prime lamb average was £88.79 per head, or 201.1p/kg,

Also trading similarly on the week among the 443 cast sheep on offer were heavy ewes, those best bred making £120-plus to a top £131.50 for a single Texel from J Long, of Airton. Cull ewes averaged £63.49 and cast rams £71.73.

Booths top dairy trade

The fortnightly dairy sale saw a turnout of 21 newly calved and maiden heifers, with trade again brisk for fresh milk.

Geoff and Margaret Booth, who run the Dowshawdale herd in Lothersdale, led the way on price with a brace of pedigree heifers at £2,300 and £2,280, the former claimed by the Dinsdale brothers, of Rainhall Farm in Barnoldswick, the latter by regular buyer Brian Blezard, from Ribchester.

John Thompson, from Butterknowle in Teesdale, sold three heifers to average £2,057 and to a top of £2,220. In total, over half of the 11 milkers forward sold for £2,000 or more, with both regular and return buyers taking home animals and other leaving empty handed, a point for potential future dairy vendors to note.

The sale concluded with a batch of ten maiden heifers from the Garbutt family’s Cledale herd in Danby Wiske, Northallerton, who have a surplus due to sexed semen use and good herd fertility. From a high producing herd that averaged 44.8 litres in the previous 24 hours per cow in milk, trade peaked at £900 for a black Yoda-sired heifer that became one of three purchased locally by Richard Close, of Starbotton. The consignment averaged £737.

Rearing calves sell to £410

The same morning’s weekly sale of 44 dairy-bred rearing calves comprised 21 bulls, 13 heifers and five each of heifer and steer stirks, the latter doing noticeably well when selling from £340-£440 for three- month-old goods. British Blue steers at three months-plus averaged £406, Blue heifers in the same age bracket selling either side of £350, though more could easily have been sold.

However, Blue bull calves were the pick of the trade on price, with some young goods on offer making to a sale high £410 for one from regular local vendors, the Hartley family in Beamsley. The better end comfortably made £320-plus, others selling either side of £300. Of the native youngsters, Aberdeen-Angus bull calves sold to £255, with black and whites selling to £80.

Sound store lamb trade

Skipton’s latest fortnightly Wednesday store lambs and feeding ewes fixture saw almost 7,500 head pass through the sales ring, numbers remaining strong for the time of year, with the entry beginning to move more towards wintering types and a higher proportion of hill-bred types.

An increased attendance of buyers, especially from southern and eastern counties, where winter keep is now readily available, helped produce an overall selling average of £69.46 for store lambs.