Best show and sale for Northern Texel club with 3,400gns high
“One of the best shows and sales” was how chairman of the Northern Area Texel Sheep Breeders club described the show and sale at the weekend when a top price of 3,400gns was realised for a ram with an overall 90% clearance seen.
The undoubted star of the show in terms of price was Moor Top Star, from local breeder David Towell’s celebrated flock at Upper Leys Farm, Glusburn Moor, Keighley.
The home-bred March, 2011-born son of Moor Top Predator, by Moor Top Nebulus, out of a 1,200gns Claybury ewe by Garngour Nijinsky, is already a proven performer, having produced long bare skinned lambs with notable shape.
The Skipton top price found a new home in Berwick-upon-Tweed with Robert Bradbury, of Blackheddon Farm, and will be put to good use on the 100 flock ewes by the commercial breeder.
Mr Towell’s standout pen of eight shearling rams also led the flock averages when selling at £1,430.63 a head. The South Craven breeder has performed consistently well at the annual Skipton highlight and two years ago presented another shearling ram that set a new record price in recent times of 4,200gns (£4,410).
The 3,000gns top price 2012 female was the third prize shearling ewe from Stuart Currie’s Beautry flock at Rathmell, Settle.
The February, 2011-born daughter of the Douganhill Masterpiece son Procters Oswald, acquired as a lamb five years ago, out of a Mullan Magnificent-sired flock ewe, created keen interest at the ringside, before falling to Warren Farms at Cleckheaton, Bradford, and becoming a top-class addition to their breeding lines.
It was the highest price to date achieved for a Procters Oswald by Mr Currie, who last year sold another first-rate shearling ewe at 4,100gns (£4,305), one of the highest ever prices paid at Skipton for a Texel female. At the latest renewal, his shearling ewes averaged £1,706.25 overall.
The supreme championship fell for the first time to the first prize ram lamb and male champion from the Deneside flock of County Durham’s David Nesbitt, of Winston, Darlington, who punched the air in triumph as show judge Richard Currie, of Tullagh Texels in Ballymena, Ireland, announced his verdict.
Mr Nesbitt, who has been showing at the annual fixture for several years, took top honours for the first time with Deneside Thunder, a February-born son of Allanfauld Rockafella (by Livery Predator), acquired in partnership with fellow Texel breeders Steve and Sherry Richardson, Jennifer Lodge and Robert Laird. He has already produced lambs to 9,500gns.
Out of one of Mr Nesbitt’s top breeding ewes, a classy daughter of Haddo Kingpin, the title winner sold for 2,400gns to the Manderlea flock of William, Mark and Helen Keighley, from Leathley, Otley. The Keighleys themselves sold eight shearling ewes to average £770.43 and eight shearling rams at an average of £945 each.
Show regular David Houghton, whose Tophill flock is based at Isherwood Farm, Affetside, Bury – he had been reserve female champion at Skipton the previous two years – stepped up with this year’s female champion and reserve supreme champion, earlier chosen as the first prize shearling ewe.
She is a January, 2011-born daughter of the Ballynahone Oscar son Tamnamoney Rob Roy, acquired for 5,000gns from Roger Strawbridge in Northern Ireland, and who has bred sons to 11,000gns.
Among the sire’s first crop of gimmer lambs, the Skipton runner-up, out of an ewe by the 10,000gns Knock Orion, bought jointly by Mr Houghton and Anglezarke Texels from Aberdeenshire breeders George and Albert Howie, sold for 2,100gns to Sid Walmsley & Partners, of Haverah Park, Harrogate. Mr Houghton sold six shearling ewes in total to average £866.25 per head.
Adjudicator Mr Currie was making a welcome return to Skipton. He last visited the annual Texel highlight 15 years ago as a 25-year-old to buy pedigree ram lambs and shearlings. “I was extremely pleased with them and some of their bloodlines remain in the flock to this day,” he said.
Of the show, Mr Currie commented: “It produced many sheep that were good to handle, very consistent and with good carcases. I was extremely pleased with the presentation in what has been a difficult year (in terms of the weather).
“The supreme champion had tremendous skin with a real show presence, a very correct well-grown ram lamb. The reserve supreme was full of breed character, with a tremendous carcase. She should do well for her new owners.”
The reserve male championship was awarded to the first prize shearling ram from the South Yorkshire Stoneridge Texel flock of northern chairman Steve Richardson and his wife Sherry, of Mount Pleasant Farm, Great Houghton, Barnsley.
The 18-month-old is a son of Stuart Currie’s Beautry Roberto, also by the prolific Procters Oswald, with the sire bought by the Richardsons as a lamb two years at Skipton for 1,600gns, top price in class.
The dam of the Skipton reserve male was bought in lamb to the Dutch sire Ffostyll Oscar. He found a new home in South Wales with Steve Smith’s Penparc flock. The Richardsons averaged £997.50 per head with eight shearling rams that successfully went under the hammer.
Local breeders John and Linda Mellin, who run the well-known Hull House flock at Hellifield, were responsible for the second prize shearling ewe and reserve female champion, a daughter of the Knock Playboy son Bold Venture Romeo, acquired from Lancashire breeder Andrew Holden.
By a Humeston Klondyke-sired flock ewe – herself out of a former first prize Great Yorkshire show ewe – the March, 2011-born shearling returned to Hellifield when bought for 750gns by up and coming young breeder William Watson. The Mellins’ seven-strong shearling ewe turnout averaged £675 each, along with six shearing rams sold to average £936.25 per head.
East coast breeder Mrs C Woodward, of Holyrood Farm, Balne, Goole, presented the first prize ewe lamb, a daughter of the Milnbank Rocksolid son, Wardhall Spyatri, bred in Cumbria by A L Mounsey, out of a Hull House-sired ewe. The February-born lamb sold locally to R Smith, of Steeton, for 140gns.
John and Alison North’s Loxley flock, based in Fenwick, Doncaster, also sold a shearling ewe at 1,500gns, one of six averaging £619.50 per head.
Shearling rams sold to an overall average of £681.53 per head, compared £618.40 last year, with shearling ewes averaging £478.21 (£401.40), ram lambs £409.96 (£339.30) and ewe lambs £133.50 (£253.97).