A BARNARD Castle bred Limousin sired-bullock was male and supreme champion at Skipton mart's Christmas show and sale of prime cattle.

Bred by the Dent family - and shown by the Fawcetts of Sand Hutton, York, who bought it as a 12 month-old - the 565kg champion was bought by Keelham Farm Shop, Thornton, Bradford, for a show-topping £3,164, or £5.60 per kilo.

The reserve champion was the first prize 670kg British Blue-cross heavyweight heifer and female champion from Willie Timm of Easingwold - last year's supreme Christmas champion - which sold for £2,044, or 305p/kg to co-judge Joe Woolley.

He and fellow judge James Robertshaw, co-owner of Keelham, said: "It was very close, though the title winner had the better finish and was a handier size, being well proportioned throughout - just the type a butcher’s shop would want to buy."

Mr Robertshaw made seven acquisitions for his Brighouse & Denholme Road farm shop; Keelham secured a further four; and Mr Woolley. made five acquisitions including a 690kg Blonde-cross steer from the Stoney family of Pateley Bridge at £1,759, or 255p/kg.

Clare Cropper and John Mellin, Long Preston, presented the reserve champion male and female. The former was a 595kg steer - again bred by the Dents of Barnard Castle - that finished runner-up in the supreme champion’s show class after also becoming reserve British Blue male at both the English Winter Fair and Countryside Live.

It sold for £2,052, or 345p/kg, to D&A Gregory & Sons Butchers, Bacup. They also purchased two further Cropper-Mellin British Blue-cross heifer prize winners, their second prize 525kg entry at £1,575, or 300p/kg, and the red rosette-winning 445kg heifer for £1,379, or 310p/kg.

The same vendors were also responsible for the first prize 525kg British Blue-cross steer, which sold for £1,548, or 295p/kg, to Kitsons Butchers, who made six purchases on the day for its shops in Northallerton and Stockton.