Roland Mason steals Show

In between the showers, we had a good crowd of onlookers from both town and country watching Richard Horner from Kilburn judge the glamorous cattle section. Richard worked his way through the individual classes before coming to the championship which deservedly went to Roland Mason with a superb Belgian Blue X heifer out of his own sucker herd. Roland also took the Reserve Championship and it was this heifer that made the top price of the day of 200p/kilo; but she really was an outstanding lightweight show prospect and we may not have seen the last of her.

The Champion heifer also made good money at 150p/kilo, being bought by Richard Horner to back his judgement.

The sheep market was full of good lambs and these were judged by Kevin Kelly of Scarcroft, Leeds, the Champion pen from the legendary Tom Midgley & Sons being bought by Brian Glaves at £49.

The cyclical fortunes of the pig industry must baffle even the bravest of our professional pundits and, as luck would have it, the market took another big jump this week just in time for show day.

Jim Dodsworth awarded Dennis Wardle the Championship, and his pen of gilts went on to make 95.5p/kilo before being sold to Roland Agar.

All in all it was a great day for Ryedale and we print here the parade of winners.

SUMMER FATSTOCK SHOW RESULTS

CATTLE: Judge Richard Horner of Kilburn

Bulls (450-550kgs) 1 R H Mason, 115.5p; 2 W & L Thompson, 107.5p; 3 A Harper & Sons, 105.5p

Bulls (Over 550 kgs) 1 R H Mason, 107.5p; 2 R H Mason, 106.5p; 3 A Harper & Sons, 109.5p

Steers (To 500kgs) 1 W Dunning & Son, 112.5p; 2 A Harper & Sons, 103.5p

Steers (500-600kgs) 1 A Harper & Sons, 114.5p; 2 A Harper & Sons, 110.5p, 3 A Harper & Sons, 108.5p

Steers (Over 600kgs) 1 T F W Morley, 105.5p; 2 T F W Morley, 104.5p; 3 D Boyes, 108.5p

Heifers (To 450kgs) 1 R H Mason (Champion), 148.5p; 2 R H Mason (Res Champ), 199.5p; 3 T M Bulmer, 117.5p

Heifers (Over 450kgs) 1 T M Bulmer, 121.5p; 2 R H Mason, 139.5p; 3 G D Warters, 109.5p

SHEEP Judge: Kevin Kelly of Scarcroft, Leeds

To 38kgs 1 C & M Welford, £42.80

38-42kgs 1 T Midgley & Son, £49.00; 2 K Houlston & Son, £43.00; 3 C & M Welford, £45.20

Over 42kgs 1 T Midgley & Son (Champion), £49.00; 2 A R Bulmer, £52.80; 3 G Belt & Son, £46.20

PIGS Judge: Jim Dodsworth of Harome

1 D Wardle, 95.5p; 2 M West, 86.5p; 3 F Horsley, 83p

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On a similar theme, I briefly saw Mike Knaggs at the market and he said entries were well up in nearly all sections for the Malton Show on Thursday, June 29, to be held at Scampston Park.

He made an interesting comment, that the cattle numbers were down, and I do wonder if this hasn't got something to do with the ever-increasing weight of paper that is pushed upon the farming fraternity by the EC.

This week in the post arrived yet another dictat in which we were informed that the Commission has generously indicated that provided animals are supervised at all times by their producers, movement of animals to agricultural shows does not breach the retention period rules for the various support schemes.

However, the sting in the tail is that if the animal is under retention, you have to notify MAFF in writing in advance; and because no animal can be moved now unless it has its passport with it, then the ministry will have to return the passport to you temporarily for the period of the show.

Life is never easy but our bureaucrats do seem expert at making it more difficult.

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There are two or three bits of useless information that I have picked up from the trade papers this week which you may care to note:

For the first time since the euro was launched, it has actually strengthened against the pound and the June OTMS rates will now be 49.8p/kilo for cows and 56p/kilo for other animals. Don't forget the weight limit comes off from June 5.

In the first two months of this year, Brazil has sent us 2,000 tonnes of its beef compared to 400 tonnes in the same period last year; and Argentina has also doubled its quota to the UK.

From July 1, all calves born must be identified with eartags bearing all numeric codes. The current eartags, which only came into place a year or two ago, are now outdated and must be binned.

Confirmed BSE cases to the end of April in Great Britain totalled 328, which means that we have a chance of ending up at the end of the Millennium year with less than a thousand cases for the first time in a decade.

99.3pc of British slaughter houses have passed their MAFF inspections for disposing of specified risk material!

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John Brown of Scagglethorpe sent me an interesting article written by the Duchess of Devonshire on saving our small slaughter houses.

The Devonshires operate the Chatsworth Estate and have a laudable hands-on approach to their business. Amongst other enterprises, there is a wonderful farm shop which is filled with as much produce from the estate as possible.

Two years ago, they owned one-third of a small slaughter house in Bakewell in partnership with two butchers and this provided the facility for killing their home-produced stock.

The cost of complying with the latest EC regulations were prohibitive and the slaughter house closed, leaving the Chatsworth cattle to travel a long journey across the Pennines into Cheshire to be killed.

In addition to the welfare problem, their killing charges have increased 500pc in 18 months. Her Grace only quotes the pig costs, which have risen from £2.50 in 1989 to almost £15 in 1999.

The point of the article is that there is now a petition available to sign in 10,000 butchers' shops and farmers' markets that may jolt the Government into action and prevent the loss of all our small to medium slaughter houses. Anyone who is concerned should try and find this petition and sign up to it.

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The general situation in the market this week has been slightly better in most sections. With the show boosting numbers, we ended up with 270 cattle of which 104 were young bulls.

I sold the bulls and although trade is disappointing it is no worse than anywhere else in the country. The Continentals would average around 93p/kilo and the Friesians were, if anything, better to sell at around 83p/kilo.

Best prices went to the show bulls, with the Champion from Roland Mason making 116p/kilo and the top heavyweight from Bert Harper 110p/kilo.

Clean cattle are just as fashionable as bulls are out of favour and Philip had an enjoyable session with his show cattle, making all sorts of good money with nothing under 100p/kilo.

The Intervention-type steer and the heavy heifer were were running from 100p-110p/kilo with plenty of competition. Retail butcher heifers were wanted and prices again were all from 95p/kilo upwards.

The whole atmosphere in the cattle ring was very buoyant, and anyone with spare cattle at the minute would be well advised to support us.

We had 1,230 sheep and although the lamb trade isn't exciting, it has held steady at just over 104p/kilo. Top price went to Colin Welford at 116p/kilo, followed by Tom Midgley with the Champion sheep at 114p/kilo.

Pigs are this week's wonder and David Lindley basked in the sunshine of frantic bidding for his 175 pigs.

The overall average of almost 77p/kilo has not been touched for the past two years. Dennis Wardle had the Champion pigs at 95.5p, but there were other good prices for stronger pigs from Fred Horsley at 88.5p and Kay Thompson with bacon pigs at 84p/kilo.

It was a very good day for almost everybody.

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A gentle reminder that this Saturday it is Charlie Breese's Farmers' Market at Malton. I understand that there will be an exciting array of goods and produce on offer, both by auction and on the stalls.