PRIME cattle continued to trade at the same solid pre-holiday rates as the first full week of trading following the Christmas/New Year break resumed at Skipton Auction Mart yesterday (Monday).

Knavesmire Butchers in York returned to the ringside after a month of busy trading over the peak festive period, opening its account strongly when the judge at the opening show of the year, the shop’s Anthony Swales, backed his decision when snapping up both the champion and reserve champion.

The victor was a 550kg British Blue-cross steer from North Craven father and son, Francis and Andrew Smith, of Masongill - they claimed four championships in 2022, including the New Year opener - which made top price per kg at 330.5p, with a gross of £1,818.

The reserve champion, a home-bred British Blue-cross heifer weighing 588kg from Jim and Christine Scrivin, of Elslack, sold to the Albermarle Road shop for 329.5p/kg, or £1,937, the leading gross on the day.

Also among the prizes were regular exhibitors, the Critchley family, from Hutton, Preston, and Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching.

One from the former, a Limousin-cross steer, headed its section prices at £1,875, while the second prize heifer, another Limousin-cross from the Kitchings, grossed £1,918.

Cast cow trade continued to main strong levels, with manufacturing meat in particular demand.

Better dairy culls, both to process and feed, were comfortably 170p/kg and half meat dairies 155-160p/kg. In fact, the lowest dairy cull price of the day was 135.5p/kg and best gross £1,242 for a black and white from Anthony Bolland in Bolton Abbey. The overall section selling average was 162.05p/kg, or £1,050.69 per head.

An entry of 3,353prime sheep comprised 2,655 hoggs, which achieved full clearance, and 698 cast ewes and rams. Trade for prime lambs remains under pressure, an easing in prices applying to most classes, although the smart end were probably the commodity that managed to almost maintain the previous week’s rates, with smart export weights 285-320p/kg, a few making a shade more, while the best heavies could still command £130 to £150.

Commercial lambs of all breeds and weights were definitely less money, though an overall across-the-board selling average of £101.75 per head, or 235.9p/kg, against an SQQ average of 238p/kg, was regarded as satisfactory.

Hayley Baines, of Horton –in-Craven, took top prices per kilo of 347p and 337p when selling 38kg and 40kg Beltex at £132 and £135, with JG Hall & Son, of Gargrave, making 334.9p/kg with 43kg Beltex at £144. Thomas and Sheila Binns, of Downham, Clitheroe, topped the sale at

£160 with 65kg Texels, J&M Blakey, of Bolton-by- Bowland, also chipping in at £149 with 48kg Continentals, M Ryder & Son, of Haverah Park, Harrogate, selling a 62kg Texel pen at £148.

A good turnout in terms of numbers in the cull section comprised a mixed offering of all weights and grades. More rams are now coming onto the market and the best sold to £221.50 for a Texel from Tim Robinson, of Longridge, and £179.50 from £179.50 for others from Ashfield Farms, Lothersdale. The section averaged £104.54.

Heavy Continental ewes sold to £200 from W Stapleton & Son in Hellifield, with M Ryder & Son and S Spensley & Co in Gargrave both making £179.50 with strong Texel ewes, another good pen from JW Hardcastle, of Harrogate, hitting £169.50. Big, smart sheep were all able to command £150-plus. Blue Faced Leicesters ewes sold to £149.50 from David Lodge, of Otley, and £137.50 from the Mason family in Embsay.

The heaviest North of England Mules traded to £119.50, these again consigned by the Binns family in Downham, with Lothersdale’s Geoff and Margaret Booth, also making £117.50.

Also making a return to the ring for resale courtesy of CCM was the North Craven-based Booth family’s champion Mule wether lamb from December’s Addingham & District Sheep Breeders Association’s 16th annual charity lambs show and sale in aid of Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice, Oxenhope,when it netted a spectacular £1,410 in total after being sold and returned to the ring several times. It added another £130 to Manorlands’ funds when claimed by Mark Emsley of Guiseley

Horned ewes sold to £100.50 and £94.50 from JT Robinson, of Foulridge, and £91.50 from John Smith in Carleton. Other good horned ewes got away at £60 to £80. The overall cull ewe selling average was £95.25.