A Charolais bull from W Richardson and Son, Laverock Bridge, Kendal, proved the star attraction at a pedigree beef cattle show and sale at Skipton, selling for the top price of 3000gns.

The bull, Laverock Minky, was knocked down to local producers, James Foster, Bolton Abbey.

Second top price was 2250gns paid for the third prize Limousin bull, Paul Fletcher's Siddall Novel, from Birch, Heywood. An embryo son of Raysonhall Treker, bred from Siddall Idele, it returned home to Lancashire with Colne’s JW and JH Collinson.

Local breeders John and Claire Mason, who run the Oddacres pedigree Limousin herd in Embsay, sold the lead priced cow and calf outfit at 1950gns. The 2012-born dam, Oddacres Honeybun, is by Econome and sold with her heifer calf to LJ Penter, of Litton.

The show, judged by Ian Grisedale, of Crooklands, Kendal, was staged alongside the annual Craven champions store cattle with show potential which attracted an entry of more than 800 head, to include 238 young feeding bulls.

While bulls were generally smaller on the year, there was additional interest around the ring for quality suckler-bred entries, with the heavier end of the premium bulls under 10 months comfortably selling into the £1100s, coupled with similar interest in the under 15-month-old bulls, where £1200 was the mark.

An abundance of strong stores saw big, well-fleshed cattle peak at £1285 for bullocks from Ned Simpson, of Heathfield, Pateley Bridge, with heifers from John Greenhalgh, of Bashall Eaves, selling to £1210.

Continentals were supplemented with a solid turnout of 123 native-sired cattle, which met a fierce trade, in particular Shorthorn bullocks from Will and Amy Gore Browne, of Silsden, which made £1190.

Outside of the show classes, 13-18-month-old cattle were the pick of the trade, with all bullocks in this age bracket averaging £960 and heifers £925, peaking at £1250 for a 16-month-old Limousin-cross heifer from CT and EM Hammond, of Dacre. Bullocks and heifers aged 18-30 months averaged £982 for both sections, with the latter notably strong in terms of quality.

A solid entry of feeding cows attracted an increased attendance of buyers and trade was brisk. Top end cows and OTM clean entries found levels at £1100 to £1200, with top price of £1390 falling to a Limousin from Keighley’s Jan Feather. Some 20 Limousin-sired cows averaged £939.