| 2014-12-02 |    |
Beltex Champion Carcase at Skipton Christmas Highlight
The Brown family, husband and wife Martin and Val, and their daughter Hannah, of Newton-le-Willows, presented the supreme champion lamb carcase in a standalone show and sale that again proved a popular feature of Skipton Auction Mart’s annual Christmas primestock shows and sales. (Sun, Nov 30)
The Browns’ Beltex-sired victor, winner of the under-35kg Continental class, was by a ram purchased for 2,100gns from fellow Beltex breeder David Findlay in Coverdale. It had a liveweight of 32kg, 17.9kg deadweight, with a killing out percentage of 55.9% and a grade of E2.
CCM Quality Foods manager Simon Barker shows off
the champion carcase, joined by exhibitors, the Brown family, and
judge and buyer Anthony Swales, second from right.
The champion carcase was bought by the show judge, York farmer and butcher Anthony Swales, for a heady £380, a new event high in its third year.
Hannah Brown was herself responsible for the runner-up in the same class with another Beltex, while the family combined to present the second and third prize winners in the 35-40kg Continental class with further Beltex entries, all their submissions by home-bred ewes.
All three also fell to Mr Swales at £150, £155 and £142. The prolific buyer made 11 successful acquisitions in total, including further prizewinners, with most reaching three figures. All will go on sale at his retail butchers shop in the city’s Albermarle Road.
The reserve championship was awarded to the first prize 41-44kg carcase, another Beltex with a liveweight of 43kg, 22.1kg deadweight, killing out percentage of 51.3% and E2 grading. It was shown by Follifoot farmer Les Grange, who has been breeding sheep man and boy since the age of 15 – he turns 75 next year!
Mr Grange buys and sells all his sheep at Skipton and said of his success. “It has really made my day.” The reserve champion carcase sold for second top price of £195 to Simon Barker, who manages the CCM Quality Meats production unit at Skipton Auction Mart for Stanforths Butchers. It was one of several Stanforth carcase buys, all of which will go on sale at their Skipton shop on Mill Bridge.
Robert Garth and Kelly Armitage, of Burton-in-Lonsdale, supreme lamb carcase champions in 2013, this year sold a 24.1kg Rouge for £140 to the same buyer, Accrington Market butcher George Cropper, who also paid £120 for a 22.9kg Beltex carcase from Anthony Thompson, of Foulridge.
As well as creating keen interest among butcher buyers and individuals seeking top quality lamb for their freezers – some bought as Christmas presents! – the sale also attracted buyers from the regional hospitality sector.
The red rosette-winning Texel-sired carcase was presented by Carl Fawcett, of Sand Hutton, near York. With a deadweight of 21.1kg, it sold to Steven Hodgson, landlord of The Falcon Inn at Arncliffe, who only took over the pub with his wife Joanne, who hails from the village, in May this year.
They are both from farming stock and will be putting their prize-winning carcase on ice until the New Year when they are planning a special lamb night in January. Mr Fawcett also sold a 24.7kg Texel carcase for £135 to Ken Flintoft, of Egton, Whitby. The Buck Inn at Paythorne, run by Rachael Carroll and her chef husband Steve, secured three Beltex lamb carcases, including a 19.3kg deadweight entry from Michael Hall, of Airton, at £115, bought for them by two pub regulars, local farmer Bob Middleton and former butcher Bob Starkey, now a sales rep with Copper Dragon Brewery in Skipton.
They will now feature on pub’s new winter menu in Irish stews, racks of lamb, lamb cutlets and traditional roasts. “We will use absolutely everything,” said Steve.
Barnoldswick’s Alan Parnaby was again in the thick of the action when once more buying several Dalesbred, Beltex and Texel carcases on behalf of Dales Butchers for its two outlets in Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale.
A total of 40 lamb carcases were put forward for judging, with breeders and feeders both locally and from further afield doing themselves proud. Lambs were delivered to the mart and weighed live, before slaughter at John Penny and Sons in Rawdon, with delivery back to the Stanforths Butchers meat plant on the CCM site.
Carcases were individually graded by EBLEX and third annual fixture produced an overall average selling price virtually identical to the previous year of £114.39 per lamb, or £5.35p/kg.
