DAIRY farmer John Rushton, of Gubbs Hill Farm, Elslack, was crowned Christmas rearing calf champion at Skipton Auction Mart’s annual festive highlight, with his home-bred six-week-old British Blue-cross bull calf then going on to sell for a heady £570, the best price achieved all year.

Mr Rushton is currently milking some 60 cows in his pedigree dairy herd, which operates under the Elslack prefix and was established in the 1940s by his grandfather Richard Taylor, followed by his father Jack Rushton. Mr Rushton took over in his own right 15 years ago.

He clinched the title with a youngster by the Cogent sire, Springhill Improvement, an all-white bull with a strong pedigree, out of a black and white Holstein Friesian cow. The buyer was Lincolnshire’s Nigel Mason, a familiar face at Skipton.

Standing reserve champion was the second prize British Blue-cross bull calf from multiple past Skipton rearing calf champions, the Sowray dairy farming family – brothers Shaun, Peter and Paul - from Bowes Green Farm, Bishop Thornton.

The overall runner-up sold for £490, also to Mr Mason, who took home 12 calves in total.

The festive fixture produced a cracking trade throughout, notably for Blue-cross bull calves. John and James Dugdale, of Settle, had a tremendous bull at £530 and another at £430, with Cowling’s Martyn Jennings selling a brace at £510 and £480, and the Sowray Bros two more at £470 and £450. The section achieved a solid overall selling average of £409.28 per head.

The Sowrays also topped the heifer calf prices with their first prize Blue-cross, which made £440 when claimed by the Abbott brothers in Dacre. The section average was £332.69, with the overall Continental-cross average a robust £358.66

Native youngsters averaged £240 per head, trading to a top of £320 for an Aberdeen-Angus bull calf from Hayton & Stocks in Bolton Abbey. The best black and whites were well fought over, with ten over £100 and a high of £190 for a bull calf from Richard Spence, of Sutton-in-Craven. The section average was £85.17.

The show was judged by Paul Drinkall, of Gargrave, and sponsored by Skipton NFU. Rearing calves have sold well all year at the North Yorkshire venue. The final sale of 2017 takes place this coming Monday, returning on January 8 for the opening New Year calf show.

Elsewhere on Monday, prime cattle received a good following, with the main retail butcher buyers present to bid for beef to hang until after the Christmas break.

The 23 under 30-month clean cattle sold to a top of £1,400 for a 550kg British Blue heifer from the Critchley family in Hutton, Preston, claimed by Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop in Lancaster, which also paid the highest price 261.5p per kilo for a 515kg Limousin-cross heifer from Oakworth’s James Drake. Leading buyers were Keelham Farm Shop with five purchases for their shops in Skipton and Thornton, and Stanforths Butchers in Skipton.

Also among the mix were 27 cull cows, where meat was in short supply. However, fed dairies comfortably reached 110p/kg-plus, with steaking cows selling at 95-108pkg. The overall selling average was £615.64 per head, or 102.80p/kg.

A similar turnout of 4,125 prime sheep saw the 3,866 lambs among them trade to an overall average of £78.96 per head, or 186.58p/kg.

Smart lambs were again very good to sell, with Fox Farms in Clitheroe leading the way with a £118 per head Beltex pen claimed by Kendalls Farmers Butchers, of Harrogate and Pateley Bridge. Paul Simpson, from Bolton-by-Bowland, produced the top price per kilo pens, again Beltex, with two making over 300p/kg.

The 259 cast sheep saw cull ewes average £55.55 each and cast rams £67.86.