STORE cattle trade remained solid at CCM Skipton Auction Mart's latest fortnightly midweek cattle fixture, which attracted an increased entry of 323 head on Wednesday.

 Of the 185 store bullocks and heifers, more were seen coming in from grass at 12/16-months-old, with the top 25 bullocks making £1600 to £1930 and the top 25 heifers £1560-£1860.

Aberdeen-Angus steers sold to £1800 from J Lord, Littleborough, and JN&J Rennard, Beamsley, while a run of forward yearling steers sold from £1270 up to £1350 from MJ&JD Handley, Sedbergh, growing yearlings off hill cows making £800-£1000.

Angus heifers sold to £1480, again from the Beamsley Rennards, with plenty of feeding heifers with frame making £1250-£1360, the plainer, smaller end £1050-£1200, yearling heifers again off hill cows £700-£880. Beef Shorthorn heifers sold to £1660 from H Downs & Son, Skipton..

Large fit steers sold at £1800 upwards for the heaviest, other strong feeding steers making £1540-£1680, the plainer end £1250-£1380, with just a few smaller goods £1050-£1140.

Dairy crossed cattle were well bid for, with a top price of £1930 for dairy Blues from DT&LA Houseman & Sons, Darley. Fit dairy crossed heifers sold at £1500 upwards, lean feeding heifers getting away at £1280-£1380.

Strong feeding suckler-bred cattle saw high demand, Charolais-x heifers from Janet Sheard, Huddersfield, selling to £1700 and same way bred steers from NJ&SJ Pinder, Coniston Cold, to £1790.

Sweet 12/16-month-old suckler cattle also met a strong trade, Jeff Pickles, Chapel-le-Dale, regularly selling Limousin heifers at £1780- £1860. Plenty of other nice retail cattle made £1500-£1650, younger yearling and longer keep goods selling at £1150-£1350, Brian Lund, Walshaw, Hebden Bridge, achieving £1600 with a nice 13-month-old Limousin-x heifer.

Bullocks sold to an overall Continental-x average of £1414, native average £1184, with respective averages for heifers of £1321 and £1107.

Despite another light end-of-season entry of 39 Spring-born young feeding bulls buyers remained who are keen to keep pens topped up, as trade for finished bulls firms. Top bulls in either section under 10 months or over always saw good trade to £1800, middle bulls making £1500-plus, a handful of hard-fed bulls under 12 months £850 to £1100. The section produced a Continental-x average of £1324, natives levelling at £1660.

A short entry of 15 beef cows produced a very good trade for meat, resulting in a sale average of £1382 for all sold. Best cows were into the £1600s, topping at £1680 for a Limousin from KA&HL Fawcett & Son, Barden, but it was the medium weight nicely fleshed cows that would see the most uplift in price on the fortnight.

Nine under 30-month prime cattle produced a top gross price of £1947 from Ben Townsend, Laneshawbridge, with R&E Cowperthwaite, Settle, with the Baines family, Gisburn, achieving a by-weight high of 353.5p/kg.

The busy pedigree sheep sale season at Skipton is now getting into full swing, with one of the immediate highlights the annual Beltex Society two-day show and sale tomorrow and Saturday (Sept 6&7). Sales catalogues are at www.ccmauctions.com