Champion which sold for £16,600
Records were smashed at the 72nd Melton and Belvoir Agricultural Society Christmas fatstock show and sale at Melton Mowbray.
The cattle champion tapped out by the judge, Joe Woolley, Uttoxeter, was a 720kg British Blue cross heifer from Charolotte and Georgia Davies, Gaddesby.
It went on to sell for £16,600 (2305.6p/kg) making it the dearest Christmas fatstock beast ever sold in England. The buyer was Philip Menday of The Bell Hotel, Winslow, and it is to be used at their Beef Nights in December and January.
Reserve champion went to the Lyon family, Bourne, with their home-bred 650kg Limousin cross heifer which went on to sell for £4,000 to the judge.
The champion beast led by a young handler went to Lucy Thompson, Stainby, with her Limousin cross heifer which sold for £2,700. The champion cull cow, a home-bred pedigree British Blue, reached top price of 280p/kg (£2291.90) for Mary Brown and Daisy Haigh, Newark.
Will Burden, Northamptonshire, sold his 780kg British Blue heifer at £2,298 and G.W. Amos, Market Harborough, sold a 770kg Limousin steer at 380p/kg (£2,922.15). Making 410p/kg (£2,805) was the winning native, a Lincoln Red cross steer from Lowesby Farms, Lowesby.
Chris Wright, Boston, judged the prime sheep and Kenton Foster, Hawes, judged the ewe lamb show. Both champion and reserve lambs were from J.F. Burbidge and Sons, Stamford, with the champions, a trio of 53kg Beltex selling for £300/head to Pak Mecca Meats, Birmingham.
Reserve champions were 40kg lambs from the same home which made £190/head, also to Pak Mecca Meats.
R. Barker, Grantham, took the ewe lamb championship with his Dutch Spotted and Nick Page, Goodwood Estate, won the NEMSA single and pairs classes.
Six vendors donated lambs for the charity lamb classes, which was won by the Burbidges, raising £1,032 for RABI, which combined with other charity auctions meant the event raised more than £6,000 for good causes.
The pig championship went to Kim Arden, Peterborough, with a brace of 75kg cutters which sold for £200 to G.R. Ingham, Nuneaton. Reserve champion pigs were a pair of baconers, 100kg gilts, from Brandon Francis, Norwich, which made £230/head selling to the judge, Kris Moore, Nelsons butchers. The champion sow from M. and L. Fane, Saxilby, made £200.
Auctioneers: Melton Mowbray Market.
