Feeling Blue as heifer takes top show prize

Skipton Auction Mart's annual Christmas sale of prime stock was won by an impressive British Blue heifer named Timos Ellie, whose owners William and Jonathan Timm were reserve champions at the same event last year.

The pair, of Cote House Farm in Horsforth, however, took top honours this year with the 2009-born home-bred beast.

The supreme championship caps off a remarkable year for 20-year-old Jonathan who has notched up 27 wins on the exhibition circuit this year with British Blue and Limousin-cross show animals.

The victory also represented a triumphant goodbye to the Timm family's holding as they prepare to sell up and relocate to pastures new in Scotland at Raven Farm, Stirling.

The winning animal has now been sold to John Penny & Sons, of Rawdon, Leeds, who also picked up the reserve champion, a British Blue-cross heifer from Hailey Baines, of Middop Farm, Gisburn.

Both the champion and reserve champion are destined for Bradford butcher John Summers, of Druids Street, Clayton, who will mature the prize-winning beef in readiness for his customers' Christmas tables.

In the sheep section, the prime lambs supreme championship fell for the first time to Martin and Val Brown, of Beechwood House Farm, Newton-le-Willows, Bedale, who were stepping up on their reserve supreme championship successes at Skipton's Christmas shows in both 2008 and 2009.

The reserve champion, a pure-bred Beltex pen of 46kg lambs, also lowland reserve champions, came from Stephen Pepper, of Windle House Farm, Oxenhope. The trio had earlier won the championship at this year's Keighley Show and reserve championship honours at Countryside Live, Harrogate.

Further south in the region saw intrepid farmers and buyers braving the icy conditions to make for a successful day's trading at Bakewell Auction Mart, where a total of 2,144 sheep and 494 cattle were sold.

A spokesman said: "Prices were distinctly upbeat as buyers competed hard to fill orders in a week with the possibility of other markets being disrupted by the weather."