Livestock sales recorded dairy highs and pedigree prices
Dairy cattle sold strongly at Leek, where a red-and-white heifer by Hoogerhorst DG OH Rubels-Red reached £4,750. The animal was part of an 11-head consignment from Phillip and Marilyn Critchlow of Cubley. An Applejax daughter made £4,300, while two further heifers reached £4,000; the consignment averaged £3,966. Two heifers from Michael and Caroline Wainwright of Buxton also sold for £4,300. A third-calver from the Shepherd family of Bakewell was the first cow through the ring and made £3,780. Young heifer calves from Nigel Harper of Crannage reached £600 and averaged £521.
At Gisburn, a pedigree heifer from the Claremont herd of M. and J. Bristol, Newton-in-Bowland, won the red rosette and sold for £4,100. The Peak Ring daughter was out of an Almamater dam. A heifer from G.E. Airey and Sons of Preston made £3,980 while producing 37 litres; its dam had yielded 11,447 litres. Non-pedigree heifers reached £3,850 from D.A. Wilcock of Blackrod, Bolton. Cows sold to £2,650 for a third-calver by Progenesis Metallica producing 34 litres, while a non-pedigree second-calver from H. Horsfield and Son made £2,550.
The highest-priced in-calf heifer at Gisburn was a pedigree animal from D.W. and M.N. Ishmael of Orrell, sold for £2,850. A group of 13 non-pedigree in-calf heifers from W. Rathmell of Bradford reached £2,500. Gisburn averages were £2,933 for pedigree heifers, £2,418 for pedigree cows, £2,932 for non-pedigree heifers, £2,145 for non-pedigree cows, £2,036 for non-pedigree in-calf heifers and £2,585 for pedigree in-calf heifers.
A reduction sale of the Middle Ayrshire and Red and White herds belonging to the Whiteford family, based near Brampton, topped at 4,600gns at Carlisle. Middle Rosie KM, a second-calver that was 61% Ayrshire and sired by Whiteflat King Marty, had recently been classified VG85. It sold to Messrs Tinker of Wentworth, producing 34.2kg after calving in April. A third-calver by Horseclose Yuppie made 4,000gns after recording 9,001kg in its second lactation and producing 40.1kg. Two milking heifers sold for 3,500gns each. The sale average was £2,871.67 for 103 milking cows and £2,558.88 for 94 milking heifers.
Other pedigree sales reported in the same round-up included a Limousin bull at 45,000gns in Carlisle. The 18-month-old Haltcliffe Archer, bred by Craig Ridley’s Haltcliffe herd at Wigton, was sold to Greensons Limousins of Bottisham. Carlisle’s Limousin averages were £8,755.83 for 18 senior bulls, £10,442.72 for 22 intermediate bulls, £12,240.78 for 19 junior bulls and £10,006.77 across 59 bulls. At Lanark, an Auldhouseburn Blackface ram lamb reached £145,000, while the sale averages were £10,753 for 79 ram lambs and £3,582.68 for 254 shearling rams.
Additional records were set in other breeds. A Welsh Mountain yearling ram sold for 26,000gns at Llanrwst, where 110 rams averaged £2,016. A Swaledale shearling ram from the West Briscoe flock made £25,000 at Middleton, and 97 shearling rams averaged £2,084.74. At the online H.W. Angus sale, H.W. Fleur W136 reached 24,400gns; 26 females averaged £7,140 and 13 embryo lots averaged £583. The Lonk sale at Clitheroe peaked at 7,500gns for its supreme champion shearling ram, with 59 shearling rams averaging £1,445.08.
