Champion calf knocked down at £600 at Skipton

Christmas came early for the North Yorkshire Sowray brothers when they retained their festive rearing calf supreme championship for a consecutive year at Skipton Auction Mart.

Shaun and Peter Sowray, of Bowes Green Farm, Bishop Thornton, repeated their 2012 Christmas fixture success at this year’s renewal with their first prize homebred British Blue-cross bull calf, by the Genus sire Newpole Chalky White and out of a Holstein Friesian cow.

With buyers out in force, the 42-day-old title winner comfortably headed the day’s selling prices when he was knocked down for £600, equalling the all-time record high at Skipton also achieved by two Blue-cross bull calves earlier this year.

The Christmas victor fell to Nigel Mason, of Scunthorpe, who regularly travels across from North Lincolnshire to source quality calves at Skipton, which he then improves before returning them to the sale arena.

Mr Mason, who is also an arable farmer, bought a total of nine youngsters on the day, among them the second prize British Blue-cross bull calf and reserve show champion from David Smith, of Sutton-in-Craven, at £440. The runner-up is by the Cogent dairy bull Graymar Flintoff.

Further Mason acquisitions were third prize British Blue bull calf, also from David Smith at £470, and the Sowrays’ first and third prize Continental-x male stirks at £500 and £460 respectively.

The Sowrays, who have landed multiple rearing calf championships at Skipton, were also responsible for the first prize British Blue-x heifer calf, sold for a class-topping and female high of £440 to Tony Wilson, of Barnard Castle.

The same buyer also went to £390 and £350 to secure the second and third prize Blue-x heifer calves, both from Gargrave’s Colin Whitelock. British Blues easily led the trade on the day, with bull calves averaging £420 each and heifer calves £323.

Father-and-son Fred and Mark Houseman, who trade as Church Farm Enterprises at Burton Top Farm, Burton Leonard, were responsible for the first prize native-x bull calf, an Aberdeen Angus sold for £330 to Giggleswick’s Colin Sutcliffe. The Housemans also presented the second and third prize native-x heifers, which sold at £305 and £300 respectively to the same purchaser, Matthew Dibb, of Otley.

Top price in the native heifer class of £310, and another Tony Wilson acquisition, fell to the first prize winner, an Aberdeen Angus from mart regular Richard Spence, of Sutton-in-Craven, who also had the first prize black and white bull calf, sold for £195 to Graham Stainthorpe in West Tanfield.

Paul Whitaker, of Hazelwood, had the day’s top-priced black and white youngster at £222 with his second prize bull calf, which also joined Mr Stainthorpe.

The pick of the Limousin-x youngsters came from JC&DJ Marshall, of West End, who headed both the bull and heifer calf prices at £308 and £245 respectively.

The sale produced an overall continental cross average of £364.05 per head, a native average of £244.62 and black and white mean of £107.36.