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PRIME CATTLE PRESS - MONDAY 2ND APRIL 2018

Critchleys on top again in CCM Skipton prime cattle showcase Red Rose beef farmers, the Critchley family, from Mercer Farm, Hutton, near Preston, returned to top form at Skipton Auction Mart’s April prime cattle show and sale when claiming a championship and reserve championship double. (Monday, April 2)



The multiple past champions, who of late have dominated the prime cattle show arena at Skipton, took the title with the first prize 600kg Limousin-cross steer acquired last December. By the Irish Limousin bull, Lodge Hamlet, the victor sold for the leading gross price of £1,599, or 266.5p/kg, to Phil Gregory, of D Gregory & Sons Butchers in Bacup.

Mr Gregory then added the joint highest priced per kilo animal, the second prize-winning 555kg British Blue-cross heifer from James Drake, of Denholme, for 266.5p/kg, or £1,479.

It was the second month in succession that the Rossendale Valley butcher had claimed the Skipton supreme champion, with both acquisitions snapped up to again commemorate the business’s landmark 50th anniversary this year, also the 21st anniversary in its current shop in St James Street.

The Critchleys’ reserve champion - both frontrunners were shown by Robert Critchley - was the first prize 535kg British Blue-cross heifer acquired from her breeders, the Pedley family, who run the Oak Tree pedigree herd in Barbon, near Carnforth. The overall runner-up sold for £1,319, or 246.5p/kg, to Halifax meat wholesalers J&E Medcalf.

Mr Drake was also responsible for the second prize British Blue-cross steer, which made £1,436, or 245.5p/kg, when joining Keelham Farm Shop, of Skipton and Thornton, with the third in class, a Limousin-cross from Malham Moor’s Bill Cowpertthate knocked down for £1,341, or 237.5p/kg, to Skipton-based Stanforths Butchers.

The third prize Limousin-cross heifer from Threshfield brothers Charles and Richard Kitching made £1,390, or 250.5p/kg, when again claimed by Keelham, whose six acquisitions also included the top gross price £1,484 heifer, a British Blue-cross from Trawden’s Jimmy Baines.

There was a strong trade for the small, but high quality Easter Monday bank holiday entry of 17 under 30-month clean cattle, with the show classes judged by Anthony Kitson, of Kitson & Sons Butchers, which has shops in Northallerton, Stockton-on-Tees, and Hutton Rudby, and last year launched its new Five Houses Farm Shop and Kitchen in Crathorne.

Also penned for sale were a handful of cast cattle, which were keenly sought after by a limited audience of both plain and feeding cattle buyers, producing an overall selling average of £637.40 per head, or 101.98p/kg.