The two highest gross price prime cattle at Skipton Auction Mart’s weekly Monday sale both fell to leading weekly buyer James Robertshaw for his own Robertshaws Farm Shop in Thornton.

His top price acquisition at £1,418, or 232.5p/kg, was a 610kg British Blue-cross heifer from Jim Baines, of Middop, followed up by the second top call of £1,413, or 232.5p/kg, for a 590kg Limousin-cross heifer from Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching.

Mr Robertshaw claimed nine of the 19 under 30-month cattle on parade, five for Robertshaws and four for Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton owned and run by his sister Victoria. The top price steer, a 605kg Blue-cross from Malham Moor’s Bill Cowperthwaite, made £1,413, or 233.5p/kg, when also featuring among Keelham’s buys.

In the handy weights, the Critchley family, from Hutton, led the way with a 535kg British Blue-cross heifer at 258.5p/kg, or £1,383, plus a brace of 515kg and 560kg Limousin-cross heifers at 249.5p/kg and 239.5p/kg, or £1,285 and £1,380 respectively. All three sold to another ringside regular Alan Beecroft, of Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop & Restaurant in Lancaster, who took home four in total.

A high quality weekly entry met a good trade. Heavy cattle were also a respectable trade, with a 685kg British Blue heifer from Calderdale regular Brian Lund, of Walshaw, making the top gross price of £1,400 when falling to Kendalls Farm Butchers in Pateley Bridge. Simon Barker, of Barkers Yorkshire Butchers, based at the auction mart, made a trio of acquisitions.

The 30 cull cows in the mix offered plenty of meat and produced a sharp trade, dairies selling at 110-118.5p/kg, with young dairies with feed potential equally good to sell and beef-crosses making 135-145p/kg at the top end an peaking at £1,084, or 144.5p/kg, for a Blonde-cross from Stephen Horsfield, of Mytholmroyd.

Black and whites sold to highs of £976 and 118.5p/kg for respective entries from Stuart Verity, of Clitheroe, and Chris Harrison, from Elslack. An Aberdeen-Angus cow from Matthew and Claire Ellison, of Embsay, also caught the eye at 141.4p/kg, or £983.

The overall cull cow selling average was £764.88, or 113.29p/kg, a marked improvement on the previous week.

Earlier the same morning, 66 rearing calves were successfully sold to a top of £375 for a British Blue-cross heifer from Winterburn’s Mark Smith, followed closely at £350 by a Blue bull from the Hartley family in Beamsley.

Blue bull calves averaged £262 overall, the best sorts making £320-plus and mediums £250-£320, depending on quality. Blue heifer calves averaged £222, topping at £290 from G Hayton & EC Stocks, of Bolton Abbey. The overall Continental-cross average was £239.

Of the natives, Aberdeen-Angus bull calves could be bought from £235 up to £275 for the best from JM Smith & Son, of Carleton. Mediums made £180-£235, producing a section average of £184.

Black and white youngsters were again in solid demand, averaging £79 overall, with heifer calves peaking at £210 for an entry from Chris Harrison and bulls at £115 from Andrew Townsend, of Southfield, Burnley.