SALES are again on the increase as Skipton Auction Mart approaches its peak autumn season.

The latest Monday primestock day began with cattle, when a very good trade produced a steer average of £1,817 for an entry with a weight average of 615kg.

Alistair Hargreaves, of Walton Hall, headed the chief prices with a trio of heavy steers, a 696kg Limousin grossing £1,963 (282.5p/kg) and a 700kg Charolais making £1,908 (272.5p/kg), both selling to Ralph Pearson Wholesale Butchers in Bradford.

Leading price per kg at 295.5p and the highest grossing heifer at £1,723 was a 595kg Limousin-x cross sold by Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching, again going to Pearsons.

A light entry of cast cows, with meat in short supply, saw all categories a very good trade, producing an overall selling average of 124.44p/kg, or £749.94.

A much larger turnout of 3,871 prime sheep comprised 3,126 prime lambs and 745 cast ewes and rams, with an excellent trade for the former averaging 238.6p/kg across the board, or £103.10 per head.

Heavy lambs were very good to sell, well finished commercial types commanding 240p/kg, with anything smarter for butchers making 250-280p/kg. Smart sorts weighing 48kg-55kg could regularly make £140-£155, with M Ryder & Son, of Harrogate, selling at £155, £154 three times and £152.

The highest price on the day was a charity lamb kindly donated by Andrew, Jill and Henry Atkinson, of Harrogate, which netted a fantastic £280 in aid of Sepsis UK in memory of Cumbrian young farmer Hannah Brown, of Dufton, who died so tragically young earlier this year. The generous buyer was Brayton Farm Shop, near Selby.

With trade a tad easier on the week, cull ewes sold to an overall average of £79.68, cast rams averaging £107.73.

The weekly sale of 38 rearing calves again attracted buyers from a wide area and more could have been sold. Trade peaked at £450 for a British Blue-x bull calf from the Clarke family in Thornton-In-Craven, the section averaging £380.

The annual Craven Continentals early season Friday sale of breeding sheep and rams attracted 51 head of the latter, which were a nice trade in general.

Top call of the day at 900gns fell to a strong Texel shearling from Sandra Ireton, of Chapel-le-Dale, who also made 750gns with a second same way bred entry.

A run of Texel and Beltex/Texel shearlings from the Robinson family’s commercial flock at Pannal reached 700gns with several others at 500-650gns. Texel shearling rams averaged £612 and Beltex £514.

A very good enquiry for all classes of breeding ewes saw WM Hutchinson & Son, of Kirkby Stephen, sell 2&3 crop Suffolk-x at £198, with Pam Lupton, of Galphay, Ripon, selling Suffolk-x-Texel gimmer shearlings at 260gns, while older correct or broken mouth ewes were generally £120/£140 for stronger sorts.

A total of 499 head were on offer and sold at the latest fortnightly Wednesday store cattle fixture, comprising 71 young feeding bulls, 32 beef feeding cows and bulls, 379 bullocks and heifers, and 17 breeding cattle.

Feeding bull trade hit new levels, with 13 making £1,500 or more and the top ten Limousin bulls averaging £1,582.

Age made little difference, top price of £1,700 falling to a 15-month-old Limousin from Ashfield Farms in Lothersdale. Feeding cows remained a very good trade, full beef cows selling at £1,200 and upwards.

With fat trade increasing in live auctions over the previous week, purchasers for the pick of the stores came out in force for both short and long-term feeding cattle, producing hot trade for all grades.

Bullocks peaked at £1,750 and £1,730 for two Charolais crosses from the Whiteleys, of Soyland in Calderdale, while among the heifers Limousin were a flying trade, with 83 forward averaging £1,216.

The best 17 to 20 month goods were regularly away at £1,400-plus from numerous vendors, top call of £1,570 going to TH&K Wood, of Harrogate, while Janet Sheard, from Almonbury in Kirklees sold six 18-month-old Limousin heifers to £1,460, plus another three at £1,450.

Native cattle again sold well, the entry comprising 101 Angus-sired cattle, 28 Hereford, 10 other natives, plus 25 dairy breeds, giving buyers an excellent choice of feeding cattle. Overall averages were strong, with Continental bullocks at £1,190, Continental heifers an amazing £1,197 and natives £1,041.