A NORTH Yorkshire dairy family won the calf rearing title for the second time in a row and the reserve championship at Skipton mart on Monday.

The Housemans trade as Church Farm Enterprises at Burton Leonard and consigned seven dairy-bred British Blue-cross calves – six bulls and a single heifer – from their Senterprise pedigree herd, all by the Genus dairy bull, Brooklands Dev.

Their latest winners, shown by Fred Houseman, were bull calves out of Holstein cows in the 350-strong herd, of which 310 are currently in milk. The victor sold for £420, top price of the day, to Dacre’s Andrew Houseman, with the runner-up selling for £375 to show judge Paul Drinkall, of Gargrave.

They also had a clean sweep in the Blue-cross bull calf show class when also responsible for third placed entry, along with the runner-up in the heifer show class, their seven calves averaging a healthy

£362.86 per head overall.

The first prize Blue-cross heifer calf from James Dugdale of Stackhouse, sold for £370, and he then won the native bull cal with, an Aberdeen-Angus which sold for a section high of £325, with a robust overall bull average of £250.88.

While native heifers were not quite up to the quality of their male counterparts, a straight price of £135-£145 was realised for anything with potential. The overall native average was £202.46.

Continental bull calves met a straight trade throughout achieving an overall Blue average of £333.57. The best of the Blue heifer calves sold at £300-£370, a;though some straight younger calves sold between

£130 and £260 easing the average back to £225 per head, with the section producing an overall selling average of £278.

Black and white youngsters saw some strong bidding for the better end, anything with flesh nicely away at £100-plus, peaking at £135 for the first prize winner from Marcas Chadwick, of Burnley.

A total of 86 calves were entered for the latest show day.