6 The Chronicle, Thursday, 3rd May, 2012. www.chronicleseries.co.uk

Markets

Leek

A buoyant trade throughout for the beginning of summer, not that the weather is any encouragement to graziers. Store cattle on Saturday were a remarkable trade earing in mind the threatened weather and this enthusiasm followed through to Tuesday. The weather is clearly affecting the supply of spring lamb, which holds a magnificent trade (255p) although butchers are reportedly finding it more difficult to place rime beef.

The dairy section, being a nonshow day, saw a top price of £2,100 for newly-calved heifers with three animals exceeding £2,000 to return an (for heifers of £1,614. Calves remain a sharp trade although not quite last week’s astronomic prices.

CLEAN CATTLE (13): local retail butchers setting the trade. Steers were all in the heavy racket topping 210p for a prime Limousin with others to 184p (187p). Heifers saw a premium Limousin at 223p with prime Limousins to 175p (174p). Commercial heifers topped 157.5p for Herefords with Friesians to 146.5p. Top price steer £1,344, heifer £1,271.

OVER 30-MONTH STOCK (65): a trade dominated by steakers, which took 5p off the average. Best Continental cows to 146.5p for MRI with Simmentals to 140p and Friesians 139.5p. Grade one cows (135p); grade two cows to 124p for Friesians (119p). Grade three cows to 117p (112p). Overage clean topped 170p for a smart Belgian Blue with Limousins at 169p and Friesians at 149.5p. Overall average 123.15p (£3,786.61.).

DAIRIES (59): trade very much reflected the recent drop in milk price with second and third quality significantly harder to sell. However, the best end continue to be a strong trade with two second-calvers from Peter Kenny, of Stone, reaching £2,100 and £2,090 respectively; both went to Messrs Sherwin, of Sproston. A heifer from Messrs Fernyhough, of Kidsgrove, reached £2,080 to Messrs Hulme, of Basford, with others to £1,980 £1,930 and £1,900.

Youngstock continued to sell well with a run of yearlings eaking at £890 (£796). Q1 heifers to £2,080 (£1,961); Q1 cows to £2,100 (£2,095); Q2 cows to £1,800 (£1,606). Yearlings to £890 (£796).

STORE CATTLE (539): April suckler stock topped £1,420 for a Charolais heifer with bull calf at foot, with others to £1,260. In-calf beef heifers to £930. Young ulls to £840 for Simmentals with Angus to £810 (12 months) and Limousins (12 months) to £795. Steers topped £1,220 for 18-month-old Limousins with Blue steers (21 months) at £1,185 and £1,170. Friesians to £1,010 for 25 months of age with 26-month-old Herefords at £985. Well-shaped seven-month Limousin steers topped £975. Average for steers: £767.

Heifers sold to £1,035 for 23-month-old Charolais’ from Mr

MONDAY, 7th MAY

SHEEP

at 12.30 p.m. Over 100 plus Ewes with

Lambs at foot. Frank Marshall, Chelford

Tel: 01625 861122.

ref:NDA

C1477h

Antrobus, of Biddulph, with 21-month-old Blues at £942. Limousins at 21 months at £940. Overall average for heifers: £644.

BUTCHERS’ SHEEP (292): spring lamb (152) saw standardweights to £3 with others at 295p from R Brough and Sons (261p). Mediumweights to 295p (252p) with heavy lambs to 222p . Top price £123.90. Old season lamb to 218p for mediumweights (204p) with heavy lambs to 205p (179p). Top price old season lamb £98.40.

Quality price reporting, spring lamb: premium £3 (297p); prime 292p (255p); commercial 178p.

CULL SHEEP (94): a return to normal entries seeing best ewes topping £125 with others at £122 (£75.85).

Cull rams to £90. EWES WITH LAMBS AT FOOT (33 COUPLES): topping £200 for four toothed ewes with doubles. Six-toothed ewes with singles to £178. Full-mouthed ewes with singles to £175. The section sold to average £118.

CALVES (142): strong calves took the headline prices with Blues to £440 with younger Blues at £175 (£291 for 16). Simmentals at £430 and £378 with younger calves at £355 (nine, £314). Charolais’ from Woodward Partners to £385. Swedish Red to £365. Limousins topped £328 with others at £318 (£271 for 16) with Blondes to £310.

Friesians topped £248 for strong calves with youngsters to £190 (27, £95).

Heifers saw Blues at £355 with others at £295 (£221 for 14).

Simmentals to £350 with younger calves at £305, average £255.

Limousins to £302 with others at £295 (£237).

Angus to £208, average £119. Herefords to £145 (£133).

Chelford

FRESH CALVES (160): the 59 Black and White calves sold to £200 (£93.78, up 22p). Some best Continental bulls looked a little easier, but the dip was more than made up with the price of heifer calves. Only £35 between top price bull and heifer.

Prices: bulls: Holstein x (38): (£91.55) to £180.09 (Barthomley); Friesian (21): (£97.81) to £200 (Wildboarclough); Hereford (6): (£216.83) to £264 (Church Lawton); Simmental x (8): (£256.13) to £350 (Astbury); Limousin x (4): (£263.25) to £318; Blonde D’Aquitaine x (2): (£295) to £300 (Mere); British Blue (11): (£267.73) to £365 (Congleton); Jersey (1): to £38 (Siddington); Shorthorn (1): to £38 (Siddington); Aberdeen Angus (9): (216.11) to £272 (Siddington); Brown Swiss (1): to £124 (Smallwood); Montbeliarde (5): (£187.40) to £236 (Astbury).

Heifers: Holstein x (1): to £56 (Siddington); Friesian (1): to £78 (Buglawton); Hereford (6): (£152) to £218 (Allostock); Charolais x (1): to £330; Simmental x (8): (£227.13) to £324 (Astbury); Limousin x (6): (£253.50) to £308 (Rudyard); Blonde D’Aquitaine x (4): (£232.50) to £325; British Blue (17): (£274.71) to £305 (Rudyard); Aberdeen Angus (9): (£142.22) to £178 (Siddington).

POULTRY (764 heads): hen and chicks performed well at £22-£28 for silkies. Call ducks with ducklings achieving £28-£40.

Large fowl pure breeds were in demand with Rhode Island

Reds at £24, Cochins and Legbars at £20; Welsummers, Vorwerks £18. Hybrids continue to sell well with black rocks at £12, warrens £4-£12 depending on age/ condition.

Best prices for bantams include lavender Pekins at £20, seabrights £16, cuckoo Pekins £16.

A good variety of ornamental water fowl saw Fulvous whistling ducks and Mandarins achieving £30 per head; call ducks £18; east Indians £14; runners £14. A single bar head goose reached £40, while Grayling geese achieved £20.

Turkeys fared well with Crollwitzer at £28, American wilds at £16, others £10.

A good range of hatching eggs saw rare breed stock fetching better prices with red saddled Yokohamas £10 per dozen, silver Hamburgs £12, Dewlap Toulouse goose eggs £2.40 per egg. Peafowl £3.50.

STORE AND BREEDING CATTLE (195): dairies a terrific entry which was very well received. Top of the tree at £2,200 was a fresh heifer with further models to £1,900 and £1,800. In-calf Dutch heifers found decent levels of interest selling to £1,530 and £1,450.

Large entries of cows and calves met a mixed enquiry with the edge off the trade slightly. Top outfits to £1,400 with cows with young calves to £1,170.

Store cattle trade was possibly a reflection on the weather.

Margaret and David Cutbill topped both the steers and heifers at £1,200 and £1,030 both with Blue crosses, all shapey cattle in forward condition easily sold, but one or two runs of younger cattle looked better value than of late between £500 and £600.

Forward bulls to £1,00, £960 and £840, but no real groups of younger sorts making it hard to fill a pen.

Steers: British Blue at 18 months old £1,200; British Blue x at 19 months old £1,065; Limousin x at 10-11 months old £940; Aberdeen Angus x at 13 months old £930; Hereford x at 18-20 months old £910.

Heifers: British Blue x at 16 months old £1,030; Limousin x at 21 months old £980; British Blue x at 12 months old £920; Aberdeen Angus x at 24 months old £900; Limousin x at 24 months old £895.

Bulls: Friesian at 17 months old £1,000; Shorthorn at 21 months old £960; Limousin x at 19 months old £960; British Blue x at 21 months old £840; Simmental x at 10 months old £760.

PIGS (330): there were 21 culls sows and boars, which met a good demand with best sows over 70p to a top of 77p (68.04p).

Sows: £247.94, £226.46, £225.78.

The 139 butchers’ pigs met an improved demand with 44 over 120p to a top of 139p. However, a large percentage of the entry were traditional breeds which sold from 65p to 88p to average 78p, which has the obvious effect on the averages.

Prices: porker (45): to 65p (90.99p); cutter (34): to 66p (100.51p); baconer (57): to 65p (101.78p); overweight (3): to 97p (97p); overall (139): 98.28p.

STORE AND BREEDING PIGS (170): £/head: £53 at 50kg; £48 at 46kg; £40 at 38kg; £38 at 32kg; £31 at 21kg.

In the breeding section, gilts and litters sold at £210, £180, £170 and a Duroc boar at £200.

STORE AND BREEDING SHEEP (213): mule ewe and twins £200; Texel ewes and twins £180; Blue D’Maine ewe and twins £174; Suffolk ewe and twins

£170.

FARM PRODUCE (30 loads): the return of wintry conditions brought a huge number of prospective purchasers to the produce yard, many leaving disappointed with the inadequacy of the entry to meet the demand. The entry comprised 10 loads of haylage/silage, 12 loads of hay and only eight loads of straw, the lowest price of the day being £58 per tonne and the highest £200 per tonne.

Best quality small bale hay topped at £200 per tonne for the first time this season with other middling quality small bale hay at £140 to £160 per tonne.

Big bale hay met an exceptional demand for this season up to £150 per tonne with three other loads at £140 per tonne.

Despite the high proportion of haylage on offer, demand was high leading to prices between £58 and £95 per tonne.

Straw was probably dearest of all commodities with big bale barley straw at £98, big bale wheat straw £90 to £112 per tonne and oat straw £92. A single load of small bale wheat made £112 per tonne.

EGGS (1,059 DOZ): only a small entry of hen eggs met a steady demand.

Barn: large to £1.35; medium to £1.30; small to £1; goose 70p £1; duck £1.40 - £2.

POTAOTES

AND

STOCKFEED (1,057): Wilja to £3 (£2); Piper to £3.25 (£2.50); Celine to £2.50 (£2.50); Nadine to £2.75 (£2.75); Celine to £2.50 (£2); 100 x washed Nadine x 12.5kg to £2.50; baker x 40 to £5.50 (£5.50); carrots (650) to £1.30 (£1.20); rolled barley to £3.50 (£3.35); potatoes to £1.25 (£1.25); rolled oats to £4 (£4); hay to £4 (£3.50).

PACKAGES VEGETABLES (695): Prices: dirty carrots to £4 (£3.50); washed carrots to £4 (£3); onion x 20kg at £4.50 (£4.50); cabbage Tundra x 6 to £1.75 (£1.25); Savoy cabbage x 6 to £1.50 (£1.25); hard cabbage x 6 to £2 (£1.50); purple sprouting broccoli to £6; parsnip x 5kg to £3.50 (£3.50); cauliflower x 6 to £4.25 (£3.75); leek x 5kg to £2.50 (£2); rhubarb per lb to 50p (35p); lettuce flat x 12 to £2.50 (£2.25); Gatwick x 12 to £4.50 (£4.25); mixed Lollo lettuce to £6 (£5.50).

CULL COWS AND CULL BULLS (141): the 95 Black and White cows to £1,156.04 (£751.84).

Back to the expected sized entry for Chelford met another good trade with best Black and Whites around 140p to a top of 152p. Top price 176p for a Blue forward at 175p by a Limousin and a Bazadaise. Cull bulls to £1,422.84.

Prices: British Blue at 774kg 165p or £1,277.10; Simmental x at 776kg 157p or £1,218.32; Simmental x at 798kg 150p or £1,197; Limousin x at 696kg 169p or £1,176.24; British Blue x at 678kg 173p or £1,172.94.

Cull cows: Holstein x (70): (116.07p) to 152p; Friesian (25): (116.33p) to 148p.

BUTCHERS’ SHEEP (688): the 219 new season lambs and 400 old season lambs with 278p for (39.8kg) Texel crosses from G and M Platt and Son, Gawsworth; old season lambs to 206p (39kg) Texel crosses for Messrs Dyson, Scarisbrick; overall average lambs 235.8p, old season lambs 186.9p.

Prices: lambs: premium 278p (254.5p); prime to 248p (239.5p); others to 225p (217.5p).

CULL EWES AND RAMS (69): only a small entry met a slightly easier demand, selling to a top of £101, four rams to 67p (67p); 61 ewes to 101p (77.88p).

BUTCHERS’ CATTLE (60): trade, if anything, a penny or two better especially when you consider the quality was not a patch on last week. Liz Kynaston hit the top spot at 224p for a handy heifer and Brian Taylor sold his steers to 222p or a whisker short of £1,200.

Top headage was Dave Okill’s heifer, tipping the scales at 688kg and grossing £1,327.84 and

Messrs Wilcock deserve a mention, Holstein steers to £1,242.66.

Desperately short of bulls, handy Continentals to 200p twice for Steve Greenhill and the pick o the Black and Whites to 184p fo Dave Bromilow. Lesser Holsteins around the low 170s looking very well sold.

Quality price: steers (15): to 222p (180.73p); heifers (24): to 224p (190.68p); bulls (21): to 200p (177.30p); overall average (60): 183.54p.

Dairy farmer Denis wins cup

Left, Mr Parton receives the cup from Sir William. Cheshire dairy farmer Denis Parton is the 2012 winner of the Capesthorne Millennium Cup.

The cup was donated to the Cheshire Agricultural Society by Sir William and Lady Elizabeth Bromley Davenport, of Capesthorne Hall and is awarded annually for “exceptional endeavour” in promoting the interests of agriculture or countryside related activities in the county.

Mr Parton, of Boot House Farm in Tarporley, was nominated for the award by the NFU, an organisation he’s shown dedication towards for many years. As a member of the Young Farmers’ Club, he got involved in county debating competitions and would always ask NFU officeholders for advice on whatever subject they were debating.

(Submitted photograph).

Roads chaos in wind and rain

28 classes in Cheshire Farms

Competition

At the annual meeting of the Cheshire Farms Competition in January, Stuart Roberts was elected chairman to succeed Anthony Houghton, who had an extremely successful year as chairman in 2011.

The president is David Priestner and the vice-president is John Ball.

This year, there are 28 classes. A detailed list of their closing dates can be found on the society calendar. However, the fou classes with earlier closing dates than the rest are: early potatoes, dairy heifers, winter oilseed rape and farming and wildlife — the closing date for all these is 21st May. The closing date for best sown ley was Monday.

Highways crews were out in force across Staffordshire on Monday night when strong winds and heavy rain caused chaos on the roads.

A 70-strong team from the county council helped to clear up the debris.

The highways depots were inundated with more than 100 calls from residents and motorists reporting damage.

Dozens of trees were blown down, particularly in the north of the county, which was the worst hit. The team received 40 phone calls relating to problems in Leek.

Minimum The three crop classes above are all for a single field with a minimum of five acres.

Dairy heifers are for 10 in-cal and/or 10 maiden heifers.

The competition is open to all Cheshire farmers.

For further information and entry forms, contact secretary Christine Middleton at Reaseheath College, Nantwich, on 01270 613221 or 07976 051069.

The awards presentation dinne takes place on Friday, 9th November at Nantwich Civic Hall. Sheep rustlers strike east Cheshire farms

Sheep rustlers using “cruel and distressing” actics have targeted farms in east Cheshire.

They are after fiveeek-old milk lambs hich are being weaned y their mothers. The lambs are being chased before being tied p and transported and are hen likely to be slaughtered inhumanely.

There is also a legal equirement — probably ignored by thieves — that animal organs are disposed of properly to prevent the spread of disease.

Coun Rachel Bailey, Cheshire East Council Cabinet ember with responsibility for safer and stronger communiies, said: “These thefts are cruel and distressing for all involved. The ewe and the lamb will suffer from considerable distress and the farmers obviously suffer emotionally and financially.

“I would urge everyone to emain vigilant and report anyhing suspicious to either the olice, or to us here at the council.”

Anyone with information about hefts from farms should call the council on 01270 686601.

Jill Pace, a sheep farmer at edhurst Green Farm, Congleton, said they had not been affected by the lamb thefts, but had been warned by Cheshire Police’s Farm Watch to remain vigilant.

A shepherd who did not wish to be named, said: “We’re with the lambs all the time at the moment as it’s lambing season and we keep tabs on them but there’s nothing much else we can do.

“We can’t put tags on them. We’ll just have to bite the bullet if thefts happen. Of course we’re concerned, it’s not nice to lose livestock.”

Insp Jez Taylor, of Macclesfield’s neighbourhood policing unit, said: “We are continuing to monitor the affected areas and would advise that residents remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity in rural areas to police by ringing on our non-emergency number, 101.”

Carl Hudspith, of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “It does seem to be on the increase. It’s a sad state of affairs. Any members of the public should report it to the police if they see it happening.

“I think there’s two issues: animal welfare and consumer safety. People should only buy lamb from reputable sources and not cut-price meat slaughtered in illegal abattoirs with rudimentary hygiene standards and sold on the black market.

“There’s nothing that farmers can do to prevent it short of locking them up and keeping them indoors. They’re stolen by opportunists. It’s a very quiet theft. And the thieves are often quite professional-looking. If you see people loading up lambs into a trailer, you might not necessarily assume anything was wrong — they very often look the part. It’s a very difficult one to combat, I’m afraid.”

He added: “It’s only to do with lamb prices a bit, they are fairly high but I think it’s a trend like machinery theft last year.”

Redesmere raft race for hospice

On Saturday, 16th June, Redesmere Sailing Club has again organised a raft race in aid of East Cheshire Hospice.

This will be its 15th year and already it has successfully raised over £25,000 for the hospice.

The event is always a good day out for friends and family plus it is a really good opportunity for companies to get their employees together on a team building exercise.

To enter a team and support the local hospice, call Tim Baker on 01625 666990 and request an entry form, or sponsor an event.

The hospice’s services are free but it receives less than 23% of its annual costs from Government and so has to fund-raise almost £6,000 every single day of the year to make ends meet.

For further information call Tim Baker, who is organising the event, on 07711 603 010 or email tim.baker2@btinternet.com

School open day

Mossley CE Primary School holds an informal open day for children and parents on Friday, 4th May, 1.30pm-3pm. The school can be seen in action and everyone is welcome.

Places are available for September.

The Chronicle, Thursday, 3rd May, 2012. www.chronicleseries.co.uk 7

Cubs earn their global conservation badges

Members of the 6th Congleton Cub pack have been working towards their global conservation badge for the last few weeks.

They have been looking at how people damage the environment and taking part in two projects — making a bird box and tidying up the grounds at Congleton High School, where they meet weekly.

They also ran a “save it” campaign at home, where they monitored the amount of water used and the amount of recycling that took place and encouraged their families to reduce the amount that went to landfill and increase the amount recycled.

To complete the activity badge, pack leader Wendy Osbaldestin invited local conservation biologist Patti Pinto to talk to the Cubs about the topic. Mrs Pinto asked the Cubs what they had learnt about litter and how much they had picked up in the school grounds. They told her that they had picked over 10 bin bags of rubbish including crisps packets, paper, cardboard and sweet wrappers.

She gave a presentation on litter, how much it costs to clean up and the effect it can have on wildlife globally. The Cubs learned that the giant albatross dies from eating plastic bottle tops and whales drown when caught up in wood and rope in the oceans.

She played a game with household rubbish to see if the Cubs could correctly dispose of a selection of materials and she showed them compostable materials from her own kitchen including a variety of raw vegetable waste, cardboard and paper. Many of the boys told her that they had compost bins at home or in school.

TheCubs watched three short films on global conservation at Chester

The Cubs with (back) Mrs Pinto.

Zoo involving the endangered species black rhino and painted dog and the help the zoo is giving to a special reserve and local people in Mkomazi, Tanzania. Some of the money raised by the zoo goes towards working with local communities to help conserve both the habitat and species in the wild.

Other activities for the Cubs included a mix and match wild animals, a word search and how to make a flowerpot from newspaper.

Mrs Osbaldestin told the Cubs that they had all passed their global conservation activity badge and thanked Mrs Pinto for her help.

(Submitted photograph).

Camp stove fire

Firefighters were called to deal with a camping stove fire at a house on Kingsley Road, Congleton.

The pan-rest of the stove had been incorrectly fitted and as a result, the gas canister was not securely connected to the head of the stove. Leaking gas caught the ignition flame and the owner burned his hand. The fire crew treated the minor injuries. The incident happened on Wednesday, 18th April, at around 6.15pm.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service advised anyone using the stoves to read the instructions fully first.

Donna Hubbard, the founder of the “resisted tension” workout and the Gymophobics empire.

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