Anticipation high for CCM Christmas primestock showcase this Sunday
The much anticipated climax of Skipton Auction Mart’s primestock year, the high profile annual Christmas shows and sales, take place this Sunday. (Nov 25).
Both traditional family-run retail butchers and meat wholesalers will again be at the ringside and going head-to-head in a bid to claim the cream of region’s prime cattle and lambs for their customers’ festive tables.
Competition is particularly fierce for the major prize winners, notably supreme champions, with butchers willing to pay heady prices for the best in each show to not only have the honour of selling some of the best beef and lamb that money can buy, but also adding major prestige to their own businesses.
Last year’s prime cattle supreme champion sold for a record high Christmas show price of £4,857, with the title-winning pen of three prime lambs selling for an exhilarating £520 each.
Top quality primestock will again be on offer, with vendors going all out to win some glittering trophies and special prizes - and the bragging rights that go with them! There’s good prize money too across all classes.
The 16 butchers’ prime cattle show classes this year are again for both haltered and un-haltered steers and heifers, covering all the popular breeds and also including the annual young handlers show class. As usual, the categories have been purposely designed to encourage farmers to bring forward more lightweight animals, which continue to have enhanced appeal to retail butchers
Prime cattle co-judges are regular butcher buyer Alan Beecroft, of Countrstyle Meats Farm Shop in Lancaster, and Scottish pedigree cattle breeder Stephen Illingworth, from Eaglesfield, Lockerbie. They will first nominate their chosen male and female champions, one of which will then become supreme champion
Ten butchers’ prime lamb show classes, all for pens of three, both trimmed and untrimmed, are again on the agenda. These, too, cover all the well-known local sheep breeds, with standalone classes for both lowland and hill-bred lambs.
Jim Holden, who buys cattle for Morrisons Supermarkets’ meat processing company. Woodhead Bros in Colne, will judge the lowland lambs and choose both the champion trimmed and untrimmed trio, the latter a new category this year, while livestock buyer Morgan Helliwell, of Milnrow, Rochdale, will judge and pick his hill lamb champions. The duo will then confer and announce the overall supreme champion trio.
Gaining in both popularity and stature year on year is the annual lamb carcase competition, again featuring five by-weight classes for Continental, Swaledale, Dalesbred and other native and hill breeds, with cash prizes from several sheep breed societies boosting the prize fund.
All entries will then go under the hammer – last year’s supreme champion carcase sold for top call of £250 – and spirited bidding is again anticipated from regional butchers, hotels, restaurants and pubs, who remain keen to buy award-winning carcases for display, promotion and sale in the run up to Christmas. This year’s judge is butcher Philip Parkin, of Howden, Goole.
In addition, two annual show classes for prime pigs will be judged by Simon Barker, of Skipton-based Stanforths Butchers, who also runs the CCM Quality Foods meat production unit at the mart. He bought the 2017 champion trio for top price of £240 each.
As in past years, the action-packed day features a strong Christmas charity section, with no less than 16 standalone show classes, both food and non-food related.
The annual pork pie competition is again open to both professional and amateur pie makers, with additional show classes for speciality cold eating pies, sausage rolls and Scotch eggs, plus others catering for a wide variety of home-made produce.
Photographic and home-made Christmas card competitions are supplemented by four classes especially for children aged under ten and under 14, making it an all-round family event. The annual show and sale of fodder hay again features three classes.
Christmas charity section entries will be auctioned off towards the end of the afternoon, once more in aid of the mart’s two main annual beneficiaries, Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice in Oxenhope, and national farming charity, the Addington Fund. Last year, over £4,300 was raised.
Styled on London’s famous former Smithfield Christmas Fatstock Show, Skipton’s annual festive highlight also provides a worthwhile opportunity for butchers and wholesalers to meet and network with farmer producers in person.
Multiple sponsors are again supporting the event, with Skipton NFU the mainline sponsor. Judging starts at 11am, with sale times from 12.30pm.
Members of the public are also welcome to attend, with full catering and licensed bar facilities available throughout the day.