Beltex-cross lambs take title at Skipton New Year primestock

The winning pen of five Beltex-cross lambs sold for the top price of £109 per head to Yorkshire Halal Meat Suppliers, Osset, Yorkshire.

The same buyers also took the class-winning Mule and Masham pen, sent out by J. Drake, Carlton, for £84 per head and the Horned class-winning Swaledales from Roy Nelson, Hetton, Skipton, which sold for £88 per head.

Stephen Pepper, Oxenhope, Keighley, took the reserve rosette with a pen of Texel-cross lambs, which later sold to Andrew Atkinson, Harrogate, for £104 per head.

Across the board, top prices and average prices for 1,563 lambs and ewes were markedly better than the corresponding event in January 2009. The top sale price of 236p/kg compared with 204p/kg last year, while the overall average of 192p/kg was more than 30p/kg, or £12 per head, higher than at the same event 12 months ago.

In the cattle section, the champion was a British Blue steer from L. Bamforth and Sons, Wainstalls, Calderdale.

Farm shop

It made £1,217 (204.5p/kg) going to Keelham Hall farm shop, Thornton, Bradford.

The reserve champion was a Blonde-cross heifer consigned by James Baines, Trawden, Lancashire and bought by meat suppliers Samuel Howarth, Manchester, for £1,050 (185.5p/kg).

Over 120 calves went through the ring. At £400, the champion was a British Blue-cross bull calf from David Smith, Keighley, Yorkshire. It was bought by J. Kemp, Mount Tabor, Halifax, who also paid £400 for another British Blue bull, this time from A. Sowray and Son, Bishop Thornton, Harrogate. The victor, David Smith, also sold an Aberdeen Angus heifer calf for £295 and a Limousin bull calf for £272.

The average price per head for calves in all classes – bulls and heifers – was £189.77.

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