A STRONG show of both cattle and sheep were forward at Skipton Auction Mart, on Monday, for the first show and sale of prime stock in 2017.
Taking the cattle championship was a 515kg British Blue cross heifer from Ben Townsend, Laneshawbridge, which later sold for the top prices of £1434 and 278.5p per kg when snapped up by Keelham Farm Shop.
The reserve champion – another Blue heifer but this time weighing 525kg and consigned by Jim and Christine Scriven, Elslack – sold to the judge, Philip Gregory, of DA Gregory and Sons Butchers, Bacup, for £1326 or 252.5p.
Prime hoggs met a sharp trade as the champion pen from Jimmy Towler, Grindleton, sold for £130 per head or 288.9p to John Bowling, buying on behalf of Hamlets Butchers, Garstang, Preston. Those five April-born hoggs by a Beltex sire were out of Beltex cross Texel mothers and tipped the scales at 45kg.
Judges Mick Etherington, Wilsden, and James Dewhurst, a buyer for Swaledale Foods, awarded the reserve title to a pen of 44kg continental hoggs from TB Moorhouse, Dacre.
They later sold to Andrew Atkinson, Felliscliffe, for £98.
Leading the pence per kg at 289.5p, however, was a 38kg pen of hoggs from Henry Atkinson, Felliscliffe, with this pen also hitting the £110 per head mark.
Overall, 3638 hoggs cashed in to average 170.04p or £72.58.