SKIPTON Auction Mart’s latest fortnightly Craven Dairy Auction, on Monday, met selective trade despite a good quality show of stock.

Trade topped with Brian and Judith Moorhouse, of the Aireburn pedigree herd in Bell Busk, achieving £1,980 for their tall, well balanced fresh heifer backed by 7 gens VG and EX dams and selling to Will Oldfield, of Newsholme.

The Hartley farming partnership in Beamsley were volume buyers, taking home four fresh heifers, including a Silveridge Extreme-sired entry with a great wearing udder from Gargrave’s Mick Blackwell at £1,800.

Milk heifers averaged £1,694, no doubt reflected the weather and amount of grass being cut and gathered.

A nice line-up of six in-calf heifers mainly to sexed semen met a strong trade, with returning buyers keen to bid on this consignment from Scorton mother and son team, Karen and Paul Hutchinson.

The sextet, of which two were due late July, one August, one September and two October, averaged £1,480 and topped for Whychall Brekem Honey 4, whose dam had a 2nd lactation of 10,271kg at 4.72% fat and 3.50% protein.

At £1,750, Honey was one of a trailer load heading to Cowling dairy farmer Martyn Jennings. The next Craven Dairy Auction is on Monday, July 5.

The same morning’s weekly sale of 26 dairy-bred rearing calves produced a flying trade much dearer than expected, with a top price of £480 for a British Blue-x bull calf from Woolrow Farm in Huddersfield, with Blue bulls all making £340-plus, producing an overall section average of £413. The Beamsley-based Hartleys were responsible for the £395 top price Blue-x heifer calf, this section averaging £356.

Aberdeen-Angus bull calves sold to £340 from JH Bradley, again making the journey from Huddersfield and who also consigned to top price Limousin-x bull calf at the same price. A Simmental bull calf from Chris Harrison, of Elslack, made £330.