THERE was no let up in Bank Holiday Monday activity at Skipton Auction Mart when close on 3,000 head of livestock went under the hammer.

First up were 37 rearing calves, with trade holding up well and a sale high of £400 for a British Blue-x bull calf from Andrew and Louise Ayrton in Eastby, a same way bred heifer from Airton’s Paul and Janet Bolland heading its section prices at £340.

Limousin calves peaked at £335 for bulls and £300 for heifers, both from the Marshall family in West End, who also chipped in with the £200 top price black and white Holstein Friesian bull calf. Chris Harrison, of Elslack, sold a Simmental bull calf at £345, while native youngsters sold to £310 for an Aberdeen-Angus bull from Woolrow Farm in Shelley, Huddersfield.

Next up were 30 prime cattle, a third of them under 30-month clean entries geared towards the commercial sector. With an overall weight average of 594kg and both steers and heifers averaging 274.5p/kg trade was only slightly back on the previous week.

Bradford wholesalers Ralph Pearson made a clean sweep of the highlights, among them the highest gross and per kilo entry, a 625kg Limousin-x heifer from Charles and Richard Kitching, of Threshfield, at £1,753, or 280.5p/kg. Robertshaw’s Farm Shop in Thornton was again in action ringside, its acquisitions including a 570kg Limousin-x steer from the Smith family in Masongill at 273.5p/kg, or £1,559.

While meat was in short supply among dairies in the 20 cull cows on offer, at the top end a few heavier cows remained 135-140p/kg, with a four-figure high of £1,099 for a black and white from BH Wilson & Sons in Green Hammerton. A 65-month-old beef-bred Limousin cow from KJ Marston, of Askwith, was well sold at 200.5p/kg or £1,674, the section producing an overall average of 122.38p/kg, or £801.60.

The 2,872 prime sheep comprised 2,287 Spring lambs and 585 cast ewes and rams, the former performing very much on a par with the previous Monday when producing an overall selling average of 238p/kg for the third week running, or £104.12 per head.

The best lambs were again a cracking trade, with 51 pens at 270p/kg-plus, eight at 300p/kg-plus, to a top of 337p/kg, or £145 per head, for 43kg Beltex from George Sunderland, of Hebden Bridge, going to Vivers Scotlamb.

Top gross price of £162.50 fell to heavy Suffolk crosses from Steeton’s Mark Evans, heading to Hartshead Meat Co in Mossley, while N&AD Boynton, of Ripon, were next best with four Beltex lambs at a section-topping £154 per head and second top per kilo of the day at 334p/kg, again to Hartshead.

Cull ewe trade held up well, with plenty of demand for all classes. Best–bred medium to heavy Texels were £130-154.50, while heavy North of England Mule ewes could make from the mid-£90s to £112, some ‘monsters’ among them reaching £120.50. Cull ewes averaged £86.44 and cast rams £126.67.

Episode 11 of The Farming Country Podcast is now streaming live at www.ccmauctions.com and via social media channels.