A NEW mart record price of £3,950 for a dairy animal was set at the Christmas Craven Dairy Auction at Skipton Auction Mart on Monday (25).

It fell to the Newbirks pedigree Holstein herd of David and Claire Lawson, Arthington, who won with their first prize newly calven heifer.

From the Newbirks Jazz family, with five generations of VG or EX behind it, the superbly bred daughter of the legendary Genus sire Picston Shottle was shown by the couple’s daughter, 19 year-old Suzy Lawson, who has been milking the family dairy herd since March.

Three weeks-calved and giving 34 litres, the victor was the subject of lively bidding, before being knocked down for a new Skipton record high to Stephen Jeanes of the Birks Farm pedigree dairy herd on Glusburn Moor. The fixture attracted an outstanding entry of 106 dairy animals which judge Stephen Coates described as “a fantastic array of cattle right through from maidens to milkers, with an outstanding group of heifers.”

His overall reserve was the second prize newly calven heifer from Brian Moorhouse, Bell Busk. The home-bred Holstein Friesian, a month calved and giving 33kg, is by the Semex sire Rietben Tee Off, out of a strong cow family. She sold for £2,400.

The Stainbank pedigree herd of Robin Jennings, South Stainley, presented the third prize newly calven heifer, which sold for £1,850 to WP Grattan, Brimham Rocks.

His cousin Andrew Jennings, of the Abbeyhouse pedigree herd at Fountains, had the second prize newly calven cow, which headed the pedigree prices at £2,020 on joining Wick Williams, Nantwich.

There was a clean sweep in a standalone show class for newly calven Brown Swiss heifers for David and Pauline Brown, of Ramsgill, which sold to a high of £1,720 to Wick Williams, and averaged £1,640.

The Browns also presented the first prize in-calf heifer, a pedigree Brown Swiss sold for £1,480 to B Haigh, of Oxenhope, with the second and third prizes falling to black and whites from Kelbrook’s Henry Wilson. The runner-up sold for £1,350 to MR&GP Beresford, Halton West.

Pedigree newly calven heifers averaged £2,134 and pedigree newly calven cows £1,960, with the selling average for commercial counterparts £1,845 for heifers and £2,123 for cows. In-calf heifers averaged £1,005.

The fixture also featured a dispersal sale of 30 in-milk dairy heifers and cows – predominantly Holstein Friesian with a number of Swedish Red-cross - on behalf of Peter North, of Calverley, who is going out of milking. They sold to a high of £1,900.