Cyclone son wins at Craven Champions Day

8 March 2013

Clitheroe's Ian Townson reigned supreme on Craven Champions Day, CCM Skipton's annual show and sale of commercial store cattle with future show potential. (Skipton Auction Mart, Wed, Feb 20).

A quality entry of 50 up-and-coming youngsters, many of which can be expected to go on to achieve further honours on the 2013 agricultural show circuit, sold at an overall average of £1,240 per head.

Mr Townson, of High Brake House, lifted the title with his first prize British Blue-sired bullock and male champion, an 11-month-old son of Bluegrass Cyclone – his only calf by the AI sire to date - and the third calf of a pedigree Limousin cow.

Ian Townson with his Craven Champions Day title-winning British Blue bullock

The victor sold for £1,400 to Andrew Bailey, of Cornfield House, Eldroth in North Craven. Mr Bailey, who breeds pedigree Blonde cattle, was buying on behalf of his 11-year-old daughter Jessica, a pupil at Austwick Primary School, who will parade her new charge at local and regional shows, with a potential tilt at the 2013 Great Yorkshire also in mind.

Mr Townson was also responsible for the reserve male champion with his first prize Charolais-sired bullock, by another AI sire, Lower Ffrydd Benhur, again out of a pedigree Limousin cow. The eight-month-old sold for £1,200 to John Bowling, of Ashton-in Makerfield, Wigan.

In addition, Mr Townson presented the second prize British Blue-sired bullock, which became a £1,300 purchase by Richard Critchley, of Claire Farm, Hutton, Preston, whose son Robert then stepped forward to pay top price in show at £1,750 for the third prize British Blue-sired heifer from the Akrigg farming family at Manor Farm, Cray, supreme champions at last year’s corresponding fixture.

In fact, their 2013 top price achiever is a full sister to the 2012 title winner, both being by the AI sire Eternal, out of home-bred Limousin-x-British Blue cows. The two Critchley generations – Robert with his wife Holly – will aim their Skipton acquisitions at this year’s Lancashire show circuit.

The Akriggs – father Chris and his sons Tom, John and Will – were also responsible for the second highest price of the day at £1,600 with their second prize Limousin-sired bullock, by a bull bred in Calderdale by David Balmforth.

The reserve supreme championship fell to one of the youngest show entries, a seven-month-old British Blue-sired heifer from reigning CCM Farmer of the Year Brian Lund, of Walshaw Farm, Walshaw, Hebden Bridge.

The home-bred class winner and female champion is by Deanhouse Danloy, locally bred in the Bradford area, out of a Limousin-x-Blue cow. She sold for £1,550 to Stephen Swales, of Melbourne, a regular buyer at the annual highlight, who also paid £1,600 for the second prize winner in the young handlers’ class, a British Blue shown by Rob Walker, of JC Walker & Son, Brennand Farm, Dunsop Bridge.

Mr Swales’ prize-winning 2012 Skipton purchases went on to land two championships at shows in the Goole area in the hands of his 17-year-old grandson Luke Swales, now an apprentice butcher at his father Andrew’s Knavesmire Butchers shop in Albermarle Road, York.

Luke, assisted by his grandparents, will follow a similar route this summer with the latest acquisitions, before they return to Knavesmire Butchers and take their place in the food chain as top-notch prime beef for customers’ Christmas tables.

Jack Lund with his grandfather Brian’s young handlers’ first prize-winning British Blue heifer

Brian Lund was also responsible for the first prize winner in the young handlers’ class with another seven-month-old British Blue-sired heifer shown by his 14-year-old grandson Jack, a pupil at Calder High School.

It had similar breeding patterns to Mr Lund’s reserve supreme champion and emulated it on price in the sales ring when also selling for £1,550 to Pateley Bridge’s Andrew Fisher, who acts as a stockman and show steward for CCM.

The reserve female champion was the first prize any breed heifer, a British Blue from John and Gill Huck, of Church Farm, Hubberholme, which sold for £1,380 to Wagstaff Bros, of Sutton-on-the-Forest in Hambleton.

However, it was the second prize any breed British Blue heifer, again from the Walker family in Dunsop Bridge, that achieved top price in class at £1,500 when joining show judge John Mellin, of Hellifield. The Walkers also presented the third prize any other breed heifer, another British Blue, knocked down for £1,320 to Thompson Bros, of Pickering.

Further Walker family successes were the first prize Limousin-sired bullock, sold for £1,180 to the Read farming family in Horncastle, the third prize British Blue-sired bullock, knocked down at £1,360 to JB Eastwood, of Emley, Huddersfield, and the second prize British Blue-sired heifer, which became a further Wagstaff Bros acquisition at £1,250. The same buyers also paid £1,060 for the second prize any other breed bullock, a British Blue from AB Woodhouse, of Clapham.

Jonathan Townley, of E&M Townley & Son, Clapham, was again prominent with three red rosette winners – the first prize any breed bullock, a Limousin, the first prize Limousin-sired bullock, which both became further JB Eastwood buys at £1,500 and £1,440 respectively, along with the first prize any other breed heifer, a British Blonde, sold for £1,200 to John Summers, of Clayton, Bradford, who also paid £1,200 for the third prize winner in the young handlers’ class, a British Blue shown by James Baldwin, of Hebden Bridge.

David and Linda Broadbent, of Midgley, Halifax, were again among the awards when presenting the first prize Limousin-sired heifer, sold for £1,180 to Matt and Ben Townsend, of Laneshawbridge, and the third prize any other breed heifer, a British Blonde, acquired for £1,180 by JC White, of Barnsley.

CR Fawcett, of Sandhutton, Thirsk, was a red rosette winner with the first prize any breed British Blonde bullock, a further Thompson Bros buy at £1,380, while the second prize any other breed heifer, another British Blonde, from Saddle End Farms, Chipping, fell for £1,150 to Kirkby Malham’s Jeff Burrows.

Show sponsors were Farmers Mart magazine, Laycocks Agricultural Chemists, Skipton, Huddersfield-based agricultural agent and CCM field officer Janet Sheard, West Marton fencing contractor Bob Lancaster and the Yorkshire & North East Branch of the British Charolais Cattle Society.