Craven dairy day tops £2200

Despite the introduction of new bluetongue surveillance zones and the resultant absence of entries from the Harrogate area and beyond, the March Craven Dairy Auction at Skipton Auction Mart attracted a quality entry of 28, with strong trading levels maintained.

Supreme champion for the fifth time was Robert Phillip, of Hellifield, with a fresh calved pedigree Holstein Friesian heifer by the Canadian sire Shoremar James, out of a home-bred heifer.

Giving 28kg she sold for £1900 to regular buyer Henry Wilson, Kelbrook.Top price of the day fell to the second prize fresh calved heifer from Brian Moorhouse, Bell Busk, knocked down to Aubrey Greenhalgh, Preston, for £2200.

Another show regular, Robert Crisp, Calton, had a clean sweep of the prizes in the freshly calved cows section. While his class-winning third calver made £1580 when sold to D Houseman, Darley, Harrogate, it was his third prize entry that achieved top price in class at £1660 – another Henry Wilson acquisition.

In-calf heifers sold to a top call of £1600, from Messrs Barritt, Salterforth, to Haigh Speak, Chorley. Mr Wilson also sold a batch of three-week-old Holstein Friesian calves to a top price of £380.