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Towers take top spot in class and trade

Sarah Alderton 26 April 2013
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It was a day for the Tower family at Skipton Auction Marts monthly fixture with four consecutive wins in lamb classes for Robert Towers, of J and V Towers, Lancaster with a pen of five Meatlinc-x-Charollais lambs taking the trophy.

 

The 42kg Contintental-cross victors also led trade on the day and were knocked down for show-topping price of £100 a head to Keelham Hall Farm Shop, Thornton, Bradford.

 

The shop also snapped up the prime lamb reserve champions, the first prize pen of 42kg Down-cross lambs from RA  and M Earnshaw, Gargrave, at £71 each. All the lambs will be on sale from this weekend.

 

Keelham Hall Farm Shop also pulled off a notable one-two when securing both the victor and runner-up in the prime cattle section. The shop paid £1037 (209.5p/kg) for the July prime cattle champion, a 495kg British Blue-cross heifer from reigning Craven Cattle Marts’ Stockperson of the Year, Jimmy Baines, who has farms in both Trawden and Gisburn.

 

Keelham Hall’s reserve champion was the first prize 520kg British Blue bullock from L Balmforth and Sons, Wainstalls, acquired at £1016 (195.5p/kg).

 

The shop’s buying spree continued with three further British Blue acquisitions from the Bamforths – a 520kg heifer for the day’s price top price per kilo of 215.5p, totaling £1120, the first prize bullock at £1016 (195.5p/kg) and the second prize heifer at £861 (191.5 p/kg).

 

It didn’t stop there. Keelham Hall also paid the highest gross price of the day at £1241 (203.5p/kg) for the second prize British Blue bullock from Simon Bennett, of Silsden.

Also in the prime beef classes, Jimmy Baines’ third prize heifer sold for £948 (195.5 p/kg) to T Kendall and Sons Butchers, Pateley Bridge, while British Blues from Brian Lund, Walshaw, Hebden Bridge, won first and second prizes in the young bulls class.

 

Both sold to J and E Medcalf Wholesale Butchers, Halifax, for £912 (161.5 p/kg) and £896 (154.5 p/kg) respectively. In the feeding cows section, Richard Maudsley, Rathmell, sold a British Blue cow for 149p/kg, or £1,025 gross.

 

While prime lamb prices experienced the usual seasonal wobble in the national average, the average price on the day was a creditable 157.54p/kg per head, or £63.66 each – 15p/kg or £6 a head up on the corresponding week in 2009, with numbers similar.

 

Show judge, Saltaire butcher Richard Binns, bought the second prize pen of Continental-cross 42kg lambs from Richard and Robert Greenwood, West Marton, at £78 each, while Robert Towers was also responsible for the third prize 43kg pen, which made £83.50 a head to Riley Bros Wholesale Butchers, Dunnockshaw, Burnley.

 

Mark Evans, Steeton, sent out the second and third prize Suffolks, sold at £80 and £75 apiece to Andrew Atkinson, Harrogate, and G Kirby and Son, Bishop Thornton. Mule lambs peaked at £62.50 a head for the first prize pen from JC and N Throup, Draughton, acquired by Paul Watson, Hellifield.

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