Livestock & Dairy: Bakewell Market

The established tradition of show on Sunday and sale on Monday worked very well again with a record crowd attending the Primestock judging and carol service on Sunday afternoon.

After a frosty start on Sunday things changed dramatically with heavy rain and mild temperatures greeting us on Monday morning.

The show stock was included in a busy regular market with a total of 1,551 sheep and 741 cattle on offer.

The show cattle were judged by Andrew Hobson of Oldham and the sheep by James Bunting of Newhaven.

The champion beast exhibited by T & J Gratton of Riber, near Matlock, made £11.60/kilo to gross £7,424.  It was purchased by Woolley Bros of Sheffield.

The champion lambs were exhibited by AK Belfield of Sheen, near Buxton and made 630p/kg to gross £304/head and were purchased by Stanedge Grange Butchery in Newhaven, Buxton.

Full details of all the show stock results can be found later in this report.

Despite it being a primestock sale regular supplies of cattle and sheep were at normal levels.

The store & breeding cattle section was well supported with a total of 400 on offer.

Trade was at recent levels, but at this stage the overall quality of stock is less than it was.

Steers peaked at £2,300 to average £1,512 with heifers to £2,380 ave £1,379 and feeding bulls sold to £1,500 to average £1,086.

In the breeding section in calf Hfd x heifers sold at £1,620.

The finished cattle section attracted entries of 149 head with prices dominated by the show stock.  55 steers averaged 399p and the 62 heifers averaged 437.7p.  This gives some idea of the general level of the quality of stock on sale.

OTM numbers down this week with only 127 on offer, plenty of trade with top figures 339p/kg and £3,037 per head and the average little changed at 249.7 pence.

A decent sample of calves saw bulls to £500 and heifers £350.

In the sheep section there were 1,064 lambs on offer.  The presence of the show stock distorts prices, but the SQQ average was a hefty 331.3p/kg. making a typical lamb in the 39-45kg bracket worth £140.53.

A useful entry of 487 cull sheep had ewes to £258 ave £123.82.

Forthcoming Fixtures

Thursday 4^th December – Thursday Lunchtime Sheep Sale

Friday 5^th December – Derbyshire Diamonds, Pedigree Female Sheep Sale

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DISEASE PRECAUTIONS

The authorities have asked us to pass on the message to everyone to be vigilant with regard to Bio Security.

May we respectfully ask that you use the footbaths and boot wash in order to reduce the risk

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The Funeral of

Alan Dickinson

Of

 Park Gate Farm, Bradbourne

Will be held at

Bradbourne Church

On

Monday 22^nd December

At 2pm

Refreshments afterwards at

The Sycamore Inn, Parwich

127 BARREN, OTM AND FEEDING COWS overall ave 249.8p/kg or £1687

(Auctioneer Oliver Hiles)

Up 2 pence on the week

One hundred and twenty seven cows were present on show day and some special cows on offer that had been obviously saved to try and win the prize for the highest price.

The winner and top price was Andrew Dickinson who showed a superb B Blue x cow (8 ½ yrs) that sold for 339p to gross £3037.  On the whole, trade was very strong throughout with all the regulars working hard to secure cows.

Results:

Gross Prices:

Black & White and ex dairy cows

OTM Heifers 290-318p

Best Cows 260-284p

Big Holsteins 230-250p

Leaner Cows 210-220p

Plainest end under 200p

The best today:

4 OTM Bulls

146 FINISHED CATTLE – overall average 411.1p (Auctioneer Oliver Hiles)

2 Record Breaking Days at Bakewell for the Christmas Show & Sale

Champion Makes £11.60 or £7424 Reserve Makes £5.90 or £3,658

Four more heifers make £6/kilo

The Champion Presentation with The Duke of Devonshire, auctioneer Oliver Hiles, Andrew Hobson (Judge), Tom & Jack Gratton (Vendors), The Duke of Devonshire

Bakewell Primestock Show and sale is fully established as one of the premier two-day primestock events in the country. The format works exceptionally well with the show of the stock being held on the Sunday afternoon with a massive crowd of spectators enjoying the festivities and Carol service. The stock is then held overnight and sold in the relevant sections on the Monday to a large band of buyers who descended from all corners to buy the show stock.

Highlight of the day is unquestionably the sale of the cattle champions with the Champion Beast selling for the top price of the year of £11.60/kilo (£7,424) and the reserve champion making £5.90 (£2960) with 4 other superb heifers over £6/kilo.

A massive crowd was present on Sunday 30^th November for the Annual Carol Service, the Cattle & Sheep Show as well as a superb Hog Roast in the market concourse.

The Judging for the cattle this year was carried out by Andrew Hobson who is the regular buyer at Bakewell for Hartshead Meats, Ashton under Lyme. He has purchased many cattle in the market over a number of years and has a very keen eye for quality stock. Andrew

worked well and inspected every animal until he was satisfied with their placings and few could argue that he picked out some fabulous cattle at the top of the lines.

Andrew selected one of the finest heifers ever to grace Bakewell Market as his champion. An incredible, homebred, black Limousin heifer from regular show boys Jack & Tom Gratton, Riber. She won the High Peak Livestock Society Class (Limousin & Homebred) and then was tapped out of the final lineup to be crowned the 2025 Bakewell Champion. Both the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire were at ringside and enjoyed watching the judging and engaging with the farmers. They presented their family’s Devonshire Cup at the culmination of proceedings. The Champion sold on Monday to Mr Brian Woolley for the families Woolley Brothers Wholesale Meats, of Sheffield at a new record price for the market of £11.60 to gross £7,424.  They went on to buy 13 of the best show cattle on the day as well as many other bulls and clean and barren cows.

Reserve Champion on the day and the winner of Class 5, the intermediate heifer class was a powerhouse of a black, Blue x heifer shown by Michael Wynne, Matlock. She sold for 590p (£3,658) also to the Woolley team.

Best Opposite Sex, winner of the Bakewell Show Trophy winner of the first class of the day was a red Limousin steer from veteran show man Richard Naylor, Kirk Langley. Expertly paraded around the ring by John Etches on both Sunday and Monday. The trophy was presented in the ring by Lynda Robins, President of the Bakewell Agricultural Society and The High Sheriff of Derbyshire, Sir Richard Fitzherbert. The bullock sold for 505p (£3,403) and was another on the lorry to Sheffield.

Reserve Champion from Michael Wynne

The Robert Walker Trophy class (HPLS member & sired by any other breed but Lim) this year was won by Andrew Dickinson & Lisa Powdrill. This famed duo produce some wonderful cattle, year on year and this year won with their Blue x steer weighing 694kg and sold for £4.95.

Young Handler trophy presented to Hunter Lea

A Young Handler class, first introduced in 2015 to recognise the amount of young talent that show cattle at Bakewell. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get cattle trained for showing and if it wasn’t for the interest shown by these young people on their family’s farms, then some of the cattle would not be brought forward for showing. This year there were 5 youngsters competing for the trophy and it was the youngest of these, Hunter Lea from Barnsley who was triumphant.

The Bulls are judged on Monday morning and a market entry of 29 was forward for the judge to inspect and there were some special bulls about this year. The 1^st place bull today was shown by regular vendor Ben Langton who has produced some wonderful bulls and heifers during the last 12 months. His only bull today was a very shapely B Blue x that weighed 706kg and sold for the day’s top price of 460 pence to gross £3,247.

Trade on the whole was fantastic, an increased entry on the year with 43 steers and heifers levelling at 497 pence a kilo.

Full Results

(Judge – Andrew Hobson

Class 1 – Junior Steer

Class 2 – Intermediate Steer

Class 4 – Junior Heifer

Class 5 – Intermediate Heifer

Class 6 – Senior Heifer

Class 7 – HPLS Trophy sired by Limousin

Class 8 – Robert Walker Trophy

Class 11 – Young Handler

And Gross Prices:

Steers

Sample Results:

And Gross Prices:

Finished Heifers

Sample Results:

And Gross Prices:

STORE & BREEDING CATTLE – (Auctioneers Alastair Sneddon & Meg Elliott)

A total of 400 head represents a decent entry for the time of year when supplies are usually drying up – we will have to see what next week brings.

Trade much as usual with fewer of ‘the best’ cattle coming through, hardly a surprise in December.

The sale started with a few breeding cattle including a consignment of in calf heifers from Tixall Farms.  Hereford x heifers sold to £1,520, Angus to £1,620.

Feeding Bulls

There was a small show of feeding bulls which included:

189 Steers ave £1512

A good mix with buyers present for all types.

Some weathered cattle in the entry looking ready for a change of ownership.  Plenty of level lots sold in bunches to good advantage.

Sample Results:

173 Heifers ave £1379

A good cross section of breeds, ages and qualities, but there were buyers operating at all levels.

Several large consignments that allowed the selection of well matched bunches.  These sold very well and hastened the progress of the sale.

Sample Results:

65 CALVES (Auctioneer Natasha Hall)

A busy market overall with the Christmas Fatstock sale today with a fair entry of calves.

Bulls topped at £500 for British Blue from GS & L Wheeldon Ltd.

Heifers to top at £350 twice for two British Blues from BD Hudson & PL Boam.

B/W’s to £195.

Bulls

B Blue                 £500     GS & L Wheeldon

B Blue                 £478     JE Seals & Son

B Blue                 £475     JE & CM Fletcher & Co

B Blue                 £475     JE Seals & Son

B Blue                 £425     W Bradbury

Hfrs

B Blue                 £350     BD Hudson

B Blue                 £350     PL Boam

AA                        £345     JE & CM Fletcher & Co

B Blue                 £330     TW Kent & Co

B Blue                 £330     GS & L Wheeldon

B Blue                 £325     GW & WL Neville

1064 LAMBS & 487 EWES & RAMS

(Auctioneer Peter Oven)

An overall entry of 1,551 sheep saw over 200 lambs forward for the Christmas Primestock Show on Sunday.  The judge Mr James Bunting of Stanedge Grange Butchery & Farm Shop had the difficult task in judging the tremendous show over 6 different classes, his final selection as follows:

Champion Lambs shown by AK Belfield, Sheen with judge James Bunting

SHEEP – Show Results

Native Breed                1^st          312p/kg             R Chapman                                    Farmers Fresh Ltd

2^nd         330p/kg             G Ford                                              TG Sargeant Ltd

The judge finally chose for his champion pen the heavy weight winners, a pen of 5 Texel/Beltex lambs weighing in at 48.4kg and the hammer eventually came down at 630p/kg grossing £305/head and being purchased by the judge James Bunting.

The continental show lambs averaged an amazing 375p/kg.

The sale continued very brisk in to the regular Monday sale of lambs with several pens in the 360-380p/kg bracket with an overall market average of 331.36p/kg.

Averages

Ewes and Rams

(Auctioneers Mark Elliott & Holly Swift)

Nearly 500 head for the ewes and rams.

A great entry for show week and vendors well rewarded for their efforts with a few less real top end continentals forward.

Top call of the day £258 for the Furness family at Nursery Fields with Les Hadfield close behind at £255, all for Texels.

Generally, some of the small lots of middle types and stronger grazers looked a little easier than last week.

The strong horned ewes with good fleshing were good to sell with the biggest over £100.  In the Mules better end types £190 plus.

The top 9 pens averaged £216 with 100% clearance.

Fewer rams this week to a top of £185.

482 Ewes to £258       Ave £123.82

5 Rams to £185            Ave £126.80